Next Generation: The Future Ancient
by JenCamp
Summary: The Asgaard were unable to remove the Ancient download from Jack the second time and he is stuck in stasis for seventeen years. The Repository is hereditarily transferred to a child after a JS moment.
1. Chapter 1

-1**The Future Ancient**

Summary: The Asgaard were unable to remove the Ancient download from Jack the second time and he is stuck in stasis for seventeen years. One moment between Jack and Sam resulted in a daughter that Sam is unsure is Jack's or Pete's. But, when Katie starts showing signs of Ancient properties, the mystery is solved. If anyone finds out about Katie, her life could be in danger.

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate, or anything moderately connected to it. I get paid only in reviews, and I don't believe they have any monetary gain. The name Katie was ripped from my favorite little southern, without consent, but I know she won't sue me.

Note: **Please read!** Although this is the second story in the "Next Generation" series. This story is set in a completely different universe from the last. They are in no way connected. The only theme is that they both center around Sam and Jack's child. (which by the way, is a completely different child from the other story) Also, the first chapter covers seventeen years, so obviously it jumps quite a bit. I hope it's not confusing. Just try and go with me on this one. And now, on with the story……….

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**Season Seven, Lost City**

"You should know, Hammond told me to take command if I thought you…."

"Do it."

"Sir, I really don't think it's necessary…"

"I'll make this easy on you Carter, I resign. You're in charge."

Sam nodded. "Uh, sir, the other day, before Daniel and Teal'c interrupted…"

"I know."

Sam shot him a look of understanding. "Jack."

"Carter!" he warned.

"Damn it! We don't know what's going to happen with you this time! I'm not going to regret losing you and never telling you I love you out loud!"

"Carter…"

"I won't be able to live with myself if I can't tell you. I don't care that you know, I need to say the words!"

"Carter…"

"I need you to hear them!"

Jack took the few steps to Sam. "Carter," he whispered, his hands resting on her shoulders.

Sam stopped ranting and met the piercing gaze of her commanding officer.

"I love you too," he told her before capturing her lips and showing her how much.

They never expected to make love in the cargo hold of the tel'tac. Their clothes had only been pushed down or aside, not even removed, and Sam had been pressed against the cold metal wall of the alien ship. But, as he held her in his arms, their bodies still singing in the aftermath, she knew it was the single most romantic moment of her life. And, as she watched him only hours later behind the thick wall of the stasis chamber, she knew she would treasure their one moment together for the rest of her life.

**Five Years Later:**

"Mommy?"

"What is it, Katie?" Sam asked her four-year old daughter.

"How come we don't live with daddy anymore?"

Sam sighed and knelt down to her daughter's level. "Mommy and daddy are getting a divorce, sweetie. We still both love you very much though."

"How come?"

Sam sighed again. "We realized that we just don't love each other enough to stay married."

Katie nodded as though she understood exactly what her mom was telling her. "Can I call him Pete now?"

"Why do you want to call him Pete?" Sam asked.

Katie shrugged. "I don't know. Cause you're not sure if he's my daddy."

"Katelyn Grace! Where on earth did you hear such a thing?" Sam asked in shock.

Katie shrugged. "From you."

"I've never said that before!"

"Not out loud," Katie replied before running off to her new bedroom.

Sam felt her heart fall into her stomach. "Could her daughter really hear her thoughts?"

**A Few Months Later:**

"Mommy, who's Jack?"

"What? Who told you about Jack?"

Katie shrugged and played with the crayon in her hand. "You miss him."

Sam sucked in a deep breath. "Yes, yes, I do. Very much."

"He's just sleeping."

"How do you know that, Katie?" Sam asked her daughter.

Katie shrugged again. "Cause you do."

**One Year Later:**

"KATIE!" Sam shouted as she ran to her daughter across the playground. She saw her wipe out on her roller blades a few yards away and was frantically trying to get to her.

"Mommy, I'm fine. I'm fine!" Katie tried to assure her mom as Sam searched her body for the source of the blood all over her clothes.

"Where are you hurt, Katie? Tell me, baby, where are you bleeding?"

"I'm not. Mom, Mom! I'm not!" Katie grabbed her mom's frantic hands and held them as tight as her much smaller hands could. "I'm fine."

Sam looked at her daughter and then down at the drying blood on her clothes. "Then, where did all this blood come from?"

"Me."

"Katie?"

"But, it already stopped, see," and now Katie showed her mom the long mark that was disappearing as she watched.

Sam gasped. "Katie, what? How?"

Katie shrugged. "I heal fast," she told her mom then hopped up on her blades. "Can I go skate some more now?"

Sam nodded her head absently, still in shock at what she had just now discovered about her daughter. The rest of the afternoon, Sam watched her daughter, as she thought back over Katelyn's life, trying to remember a time she had ever been sick or injured. She drew a complete blank. Her five and a half year old daughter had never been sick in her whole life.

The Ancient Gene. It had to be.

If anyone found out, Katelyn's life could be in danger.

Sam swallowed as a shiver of fear ran down her spine. No one must ever find out that Katelyn is not Pete's.

It had only been the year before that Sam discovered her daughter could read her mind. It was the first time in a long time that Sam wondered if she could be Jack's. If her little girl had been the product of that one moment they shared before he was frozen in time.

She also reasoned that it could be a result of her blending with Jolinar that gave Katie this ability, and with that, Sam decided not to test Katie's DNA. Even though she and Pete were divorced, he had been a wonderful father to Katie, and Sam really didn't want to know. It didn't matter. Jack wasn't around anyways, and knowledge of her night with the colonel would only get her in trouble and put Katie in danger. No one needed to know.

But now, Katie was showing signs of healing capabilities. Something that Sam knew for a fact was an Ancient ability. And, Jack was the one with the Ancient gene. Even more than that, he had the whole repository of the Ancients in his body when they had made love. Sam sighed. She should have known. And, if she really was truthful with herself, she had known, she just refused to admit it.

The question now was, how much of the Ancient download was transferred to their daughter?

**One Year Later:**

"MOMMY!"

Sam rushed into her daughter's room and turned on the bedside lamp. "Another nightmare?" she asked her little girl.

Katie nodded her head and scooted over to allow her mom into the bed. "You were being shot at by aliens."

Sam hated that her daughter could get in her mind and see all the horrible things she had faced. "That's over now, sweetie, I'm home, I'm safe."

"I know, but it's still scary," Katie told her mom, wrapping her arms around her and hugging her.

Sam rubbed her daughter's back. "I want you to do me a favor."

"Okay."

"Close your eyes." Sam looked down at her daughter, who abruptly closed her eyes. Sam smiled. "Now, I want you to think really hard, and you can look in my head if you need to, but I want you to find a place where you feel completely safe. No aliens, no bad guys, no bad machines, no shooting. Someplace safe."

Katie let her mind wander. She felt a tug on her consciousness and let her mind drift around before she finally found a peaceful place. "I found a safe place!" she exclaimed, her eyes still tightly closed.

"Good. Where are you?" Sam asked, smiling as she continued to rub her daughter's back.

Katie shrugged. "I don't know. I'm in a room. There's a man sleeping. He looks nice."

"Do you feel completely safe there?" Sam asked.

Katie looked at the silver-haired man sleeping, a content look on his face. "Yeah, I feel safe here."

"Good. Now, every time you have a bad dream or don't feel comfortable, you go to this place, okay?"

Katie nodded. "Okay, mommy."

Sam kissed the top of her daughter's blonde hair. "Now scoot over so I can lay down."

Katie giggled and the two soon fell asleep, cuddled in each other's arms.

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Okay, now he was sure of it, he was definitely hearing a little girl singing. Jack opened his eyes.

"Who are you?" he asked the little girl sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"I'm Katie, who are you?"

"I'm Jack. Where are we?" he asked, sitting up.

The little girl shrugged. "I don't know. In a room. You've been sleeping for awhile."

"How long?" Jack asked, scratching his hands through his hair.

The little girl shrugged again. "I don't know. I've been here a few times and this is the first time you woke up."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You just come and go? How? I don't even see any doors in this room."

The girl shrugged again and Jack wondered if she had a nervous twitch or something. "I just close my eyes and think of my safe place, and I come here."

"Huh," Jack said sarcastically. "You tap your ruby slippers too?"

This time the girl scrunched her face up in confusion. "I don't have ruby slippers."

"Just checkin'," Jack teased as a smirk brightened his face.

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"Jack?"

"Katie?"

"How long are you going to be here?"

"I don't even know where I am."

"What do you remember?"

"My team."

"You miss them, I can feel it."

"Yeah, I do, a lot."

"Are they in a room too?"

"I hope not, Katie, I hope not."

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"Katie! What's wrong?"

"She went anyways!"

"What?"

"My mom! I told her something bad would happen if she went on her mission. I told her! But, she went anyways! I told her she wouldn't come back! I told her! And she still went!"

Jack hugged and consoled the crying girl. "Your mom might not have had a choice, sweetie. I don't think she would want to leave you."

Katie cried. "She's going to be captured. I saw it. I know. She's going to be a goa'uld."

Jack's eyes widened in surprise. "A goa'uld? What do you know about the goa'uld, Katie?"

"Everything my mom knows. She goes to work everyday to fight them. She's good at it, she kills a lot of goa'ulds."

"Katie, that's what I do, too. I kill goa'ulds. Show me how to get out of here and I can help your mom," Jack pleaded, thinking this girl knew how to get out of his prison.

"I don't know how to get you out, Jack. You have to figure it out on your own. I don't even know where we are," Katie told him between sobs.

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"I talked to my mom."

"I thought you said she went on a mission and was goa'ulded?"

"She was, I can talk to her in my mind. I called for her and she told me there was an evil being in her body and she couldn't talk to me, and that if I tried to talk to her that I would be put in danger."

Jack frowned. "So, she did get implanted with a goa'uld?"

"Yeah, she told me she would try really hard to make it home to me someday, but she couldn't talk to me because if the goa'uld knew about me, then I could get hurt."

"What do you think?"

"I can't get hurt. But, I have to do what mommy says anyways."

"Yes, sweetie, yes you do."

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"Katie?"

"Yes, Jack?"

"Have you heard from your mother?"

"No. My dad says she's dead, but he doesn't know."

"You didn't tell him?"

"He doesn't listen. Ever. He's a jerk. He's not even my real dad, but I have to live with him anyways."

"Why?"

"Because he thinks he's my dad. My mom knows he's not though. But, if anyone else did, I'd be in danger because I'm special and people would want to run lots of tests on me if they knew."

"Did your mom tell you that?"

"No. She didn't have to."

"Oh."

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"You're growing up."

"I start high school tomorrow."

"Damn, sorry. It's been that long?"

"Yeah, it has. Do you think you'll ever get out of here?"

"I don't know. You tell me. You're able to come and go."

"Only my mind is here. My body is still at home in my room. I think your body is somewhere else, too. You need to find out where your body is and then maybe your mind can return to it."

"Well, you're quite intelligent, aren't you?"

"I get it from my mom."

"Any news on her?"

"No. And my dad has refused to let her friends come see me. He says they're a bad influence. It's not their fault I broke into their top-secret base."

"You did WHAT?" Jack laughed.

"I had a flash of my mom, and no one would tell me anything, so I broke in. It wasn't hard. But then me and my friend, Janet, got caught. Her dad works at the base, too, so she got into a lot of trouble. The general knew my mom so he didn't press charges, but he was really mad about it."

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"Jack? Jack? Where are you? Jack!"

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Jack opened his eyes and looked up at an older version of Daniel above him. "Daniel?"

"Jack! Thank God! It worked! How do you feel?"

Jack groaned. "Head. Hurts."

"Can you sit up?" Daniel asked, tugging lightly on Jack's arm.

Jack leaned forward and scooted up slightly in the pod he was in. "What the hell happened?"

"You don't remember?" Daniel asked apprehensively.

"Remind me."

"You had the Ancient Repository downloaded in your brain. You used it to defeat Anubis, and then you went into the stasis chamber until we could find a way to remove it."

"How long was I in that thing?"

"Uhm, well, er, the Asgaard couldn't remove it. Something about it being in you deeper than the first time and they couldn't do anything. So, we found Atlantis and after some years they were able to find research on removing the download and VOILA!"

"Years? Damn! How many years?" Jack croaked out, his head still throbbing painfully.

"Oh, uh, seventeen."

"Seventeen years!" Jack yelled, his head ready to explode.

"I'm sorry, Jack. We've tried, we have. We never gave up on you."

"Where's Carter and Teal'c?"

"Uhhhh, well, Teal'c's on Chul'ac. He's recruiting more free jaffa."

"And Carter? Where the hell is Carter?"

"She, uh, she's on another planet."

Jack lifted an eyebrow, waiting for Daniel to elaborate.

"Ba'al took her as a host ten years ago."

"WHAT?" Jack roared. "How the hell did that happen?"

Monitors started beeping and screeching.

"Jack! Jack! You have to calm down. Jack!"

"Daniel!"

"Please, Jack. We're in Atlantis. Just calm down. As soon as the doctors give you an all-clear, we'll go home and we'll fill you in on everything. Just, please stay calm so they can clear you for gate-travel."

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"Janet!" Katie yelled for her friend outside of Colorado Springs High School.

Janet Wells walked over to her best friend. "What's wrong, Katie?" she asked, adjusting her bag on her shoulders and frowning at the look on her friend's face.

"Jack's gone!" Katie practically cried.

"What?" Janet asked in confusion.

"He's gone! I went to him, but he wasn't there anymore, and now, I can't even get there, it's like the whole place is just gone!"

"What? Katie, what are you talking about?"

"Jack!"

Janet leaned on one leg and gave her friend another scowl. "Are you talking about your imaginary friend again?"

"Damn it, Janet! He's not imaginary!" Katie shrieked, causing some upper classmen to look at the duo oddly.

Janet peeked at them out of the corner of her eye and then grabbed her friend's flailing arms. "Okay, okay, just calm down. You're causing a scene. So, the guy in your head is gone, huh?"

Katie sighed in exasperation, her shoulders slumping. "He's gone."

"Well, Katie, maybe this is a good thing. You're sixteen now. You've adjusted from your mom's absence, you're kind of getting along with Pete now. Maybe this is your mind's way of saying you don't need him anymore."

"Janet! He's not imaginary," Katie hissed, and then dropping her voice even lower, glared at her friend. "You know how I am, Janet. You're the only one, I need your help."

Janet looked at her distressed friend thoughtfully. "Okay, what do you need?"

Katie turned and started walking towards the student parking lot. Janet hurrying to keep up with her pace. "I think the SGC might know about Jack…" Katie began, but was immediately cut off by Janet.

"Oh no! Katie! Not again! I was grounded forever last time! We are NOT breaking into the SGC again!"

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	2. Chapter 2

a/n: This story brings in a slew of new, original characters, so I would like to take this time and apologize to everyone if I don't develop them well enough. Most characters will have a direct link back to the show though (ie. The Well's family). There is actually quite a bit going on in this story, I hope I'm able to write it well for all of you.

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The two girls made their way across the school grounds and to the student parking lot. Katie knew Janet was going to react this way, and she really didn't blame her. After the last time, Janet was grounded for six months. She had her cell phone and her car taken away. But, the worst thing was, Janet was soft-hearted and had felt absolutely horrible for getting her father in trouble. He could have lost his job, and Katie knew Janet still felt guilty about that.

Just as they stepped off the grass and onto the pavement of the parking lot, a hand grabbed at both girls' shoulders and a body made its way between them. "Running off already?" a male's voice asked.

"Hi, Matt," Janet said in her sweet, sing-song voice and fluttered her eyelashes up at the tall senior between them.

"Hey, Janet, Kaaaatie," he stretched, his head turning from Janet to Katie and his eyebrow lifting in a questioning glance. "What are you fine ladies up to?"

"Nothing Matt," Katie replied a little too quickly.

"Why do I not believe you, Katiekins?" Matt asked, his attention completely on Katie now as he tried to read her.

"Don't call me that!" she growled.

Matt laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot, it's Caleb's pet-name for you, isn't it?"

Katie growled again. "What's with you today?"

Matt shrugged. "Me? You're the one acting all weird! I just wanted to tell you two that I'm throwing a party tomorrow. You have to come."

Katie stopped in her tracks. "Tomorrow? What about your parents?"

"Dad got called to DC for weekend meetings and mom decided to go with him," Matt explained, a proud smile on his face.

Katie narrowed her eyes at him. "What about Caleb? It's free weekend this week."

Matt grimaced at her words, his forehead creasing as his mind whirred with an answer. Finally, he shrugged. "I didn't know that, but it doesn't matter. He hasn't been coming home on free weekends lately. I doubt he will this time."

Katie nodded at Matt. This was working out better than she thought! "Okay, tomorrow, we'll be there!" Katie said with a huge grin, which only caused Janet to scowl at her in curiosity.

Matt pinched the girls shoulders lightly before running off back the way he came.

"What was that about?" Janet immediately bombarded Katie as soon as they reached Janet's car.

Katie shrugged. "He's our friend, we can't not go, Janet."

Janet narrowed her eyes at her friend. "What are you thinking, Katie?"

Katie grinned mischievously. "Contrary to what you believe, I'm certain that Jack has something to do with the SGC. Obviously, I can't just break in like last time, and I don't know what I'm looking for anyways, but at Matt's house, I can….."

Janet broke in. "You're going to go through his dad's stuff!" she cried indignantly.

Katie just grinned in return. "If anyone has anything on Jack, it would be General Dixon, right?"

Janet sighed heavily. "Katie, if you get caught…"

"I won't! Matt said it himself, his dad will be in DC. We'll make a little diversion, and I'll sneak into Dixon's home office when no one's looking. Simple."

"Riiight," Janet stretched out in disbelief, before putting the car in reverse and backing out of her parking space.

As the two girl's drove to the middle school to pick up Janet's younger brother, Danny, Katie squealed with a thought that had slipped her mind. "Oh, I almost forgot! You're staying the night at my house!"

"Why?" Janet asked, a bit worried.

"Because! It's free weekend! Didn't you hear me tell Matt? I have our ID's at my house."

Janet glanced at her friend. "What about Pete?"

Katie made a face. "He hasn't been home in over a week. I doubt he'll come home tonight.

"Okay," Janet said, excitement filling her small frame. Katie had made fake ID's awhile ago, and the girls used them frequently when the Air Force Academy had free weekends for the cadets. Katie had a huge thing for cadets. Janet thought it was more a thing for older men.

Katie looked much older than her sixteen years, and even though she had dated her fair share of high school boys, she grew bored of them quickly. She looked forward to the weekends when the cadets could leave the Academy, and always dragged Janet off to the night clubs they frequented.

Janet didn't mind, she loved to dance, and even though she really wasn't interested in the older men, she still enjoyed seeing her best friend happy. It was always a rare sight. Katie had an odd life to say the least. Janet knew about her "special abilities" but had been sworn to secrecy.

Although Janet's dad had never told her what he did at work, Katie had known all along and when Janet didn't believe her, she talked her into breaking into the mountain, and Katie had proven to Janet that the people at the SGC really did travel to different worlds and work with alien technology.

They had made it in and out of the mountain easily the first time without being caught. But, a couple years later, Katie showed up at Janet's house crying her eyes out. She had a flash of her mother, and she needed to know what was going on, so the girls, once again, broke into the mountain. Only this time, a stupid SF appeared out of nowhere, and the girls were busted.

Her father had been pissed. And the general even more so. General Dixon had been absolutely furious! Not only because two teenaged girls had broken into the most top secret base in the world, but because those two teenaged girls had been frequent visitors to his home. They were friends of his children, and the general knew that no one was going to come out of this incident looking innocent.

Janet had been grounded to her house for six months, and had missed a whole season of cheerleading and basketball because of it. Katie's dad had grounded her too, but her worst punishment was the cut-off of her mom's team. Before, Katie was allowed to call and hang out with Dr. Jackson and Teal'c whenever they were in "town," but after being caught, he refused to allow them anywhere near her. Blaming them completely for Katie's "criminal spree." He had even taken out restraining orders on the two SGC members.

The girls talked about what they were going to wear for the night as they pulled up to the junior high. Danny, Janet's thirteen-year old brother was already there waiting for them, and he hopped into the backseat. "Took you long enough," he complained, scowling at his sister. "Hi, beautiful," he said flirtatiously to Katie.

Katie rolled her eyes. Lately, Danny had decided he liked girls and wanted to be a "ladies man." His favorite person to practice on was Katie, and it drove Katie up the wall. "You've got to do better than that," she told him, throwing him daggers with her eyes.

Danny smirked and sat back against the back seat, his eyes on Katie who had her head still turned towards him. "Dollface, sugarplum, cutie pie."

Katie cackled. "Yeah, sure, those will work if you're talking to an infant! Please, Danny. You can do better than that!"

Danny acted like he was hurt by Katie's words, but the grin that escaped his lips was proof to Katie that he had taken her words lightheartedly.

A few minutes later, Janet dropped her brother off at home, and after depositing her book bag and grabbing an overnight bag for Katie's house, the two girls were off once again.

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Bubba's Nightclub was packed when Katie and Janet arrived. The bouncer had glanced at Katie's ID and motioned for her to enter without a second thought, which really didn't surprise Janet at all. Katie was the youngest, having skipped a grade in elementary school before she realized she was giving herself unneeded attention and started to act like a "normal" child. But, anyone who looked at her, always assumed she was much older. She stood at 5'11", with long blonde hair, fair skin, and deep brown eyes. A complete contrast to Janet, who stood at only 5'4", with shoulder-length dark brown hair and green eyes that were often hidden behind reading glasses.

Janet's face still held traces of her youth, and when the bouncer eyed her ID and then her, his eyes lingered on her face, scrutinizing her for several extra seconds. He glanced back at the ID and flipped it in his hands. Even with the man's doubts, Katie's work was flawless, and the man had no choice but to wave Janet through.

Katie grinned as Janet emerged on the other side of the door. It didn't take Katie long to get swept away by some cadets and the girls were soon separated. Janet danced with a group of people on the dance floor, while Katie flirted with different cadets around the bar.

It was a few hours later, Katie was leaning against a wall, a bottle of beer in her hand that some cadet had bought her before running off to the restroom, when she heard the voice that turned her blood cold.

"Last time I checked, you were no where near old enough to be in this place," a familiar voice spoke in her ear at the same time Katie felt his presence next to her.

"It must have been awhile since you checked last," Katie returned, taking a sip of the beer that she really didn't want.

A hand snaked out and snatched the bottle from her. "And since I know for a fact that you're not old enough to be here, I also know that you're definitely not old enough to be drinking that."

Katie finally turned her head to glare at the man standing next to her. "I really don't believe it's any of your business where I am, or what I'm doing, Caleb."

Caleb Dixon smirked at the blonde woman next to him. "Where'd you get the ID?"

This time, Katie smirked. "Caleb, I thought you knew me better than that."

Caleb licked his lips and narrowed his eyes, a look that twisted Katie's stomach viciously. "You made them."

It wasn't a question, and Katie realized this.

Caleb took a sip of Katie's beer. "So, it was your handiwork that made Matt's fake ID."

Katie grimaced and looked away.

Caleb laughed. "My dad was pissed when he found it. Matt told him he got it from some guy in Denver."

"He's my friend, he asked. What was I supposed to do, tell him no?"

"Your friend? He says he paid fifty bucks for that!"

Katie shrugged. "I charged Cooper eighty."

"And he paid it?" Caleb asked in surprise.

Katie looked at Caleb with a mischievous grin. "I do good work."

Before Caleb could respond, another body entered their space. "Dixon, you dog! I see you found yourself a hot one!"

Katie noticed Caleb's body tense at the new intruder. She grinned at this knowledge, and turned her head, smiling widely at the attractive man before her. "Hi, I'm Katie."

"Rob," the man replied, reaching his hand out and taking Katie's. "So, you two?"

"NO," Katie and Caleb replied simultaneously.

Rob smiled. "Oh good, then you wouldn't mind if I asked this stunning piece of flesh to dance with me?"

Katie glanced at Caleb and her eyes filled with amusement at the look of protectiveness displayed across his face. She saw his jaw move and knew he was grinding his teeth. Caleb's eyes met hers, a look of worry dancing in them, but just as he opened his mouth to speak, Rob wrapped his arm around Katie's waist and pulled her out to the dance floor.

The two danced for several songs before Janet had found them and asked to go home. "Can I have your number?" Rob asked as they left the dance floor, hand-in-hand.

Katie grinned shyly, and took the man's cell phone, quickly finding his phone book and entering her number into it. She smiled at him one more time before Janet tugged on her arm and the two girls headed for the exit.

Just as they were about to pass the bouncer, a figure loomed in front of them and blocked their departure. Katie groaned and looked up at Caleb. "What now?"

"Stay away from Rob."

Katie smirked. "Why?"

Caleb glanced around the club and then met Katie's eyes with a concerned expression. "There's something off about him. I don't trust him. Just, stay away, Katie."

Katie crossed her arms over her chest. "If you don't trust him, then why's he your friend?"

"He's not," Caleb told her, taking another step closer to her. "He's my new roommate."

Katie scrunched her face up in confusion. "What happened to Bailey?"

"He was found with drugs in his pack and kicked out."

Katie's mouth gaped open. "No way! Bailey was the most clean-cut cadet ever."

Caleb nodded, his eyes still searching the club for anyone listening in on their conversation. "I know. He swears someone planted them, but the Academy has a zero tolerance policy."

"That's crazy!" Janet announced, and the other two agreed.

"Just trust me right now, Katie. Stay away from him," Caleb warned as the two slipped past the second-year cadet and made their way out of the building.

They were walking towards the parking lot when Katie grabbed her head and screamed. "Ahhhhhh!"

Janet rushed over and held her friend in her tiny arms. "Katie! What's wrong? Katie!"

Katie clenched her eyes closed tightly. Her mind buzzing with an unbearable noise and a familiar man's voice speaking far off, too far off for Katie to understand his words, or place his voice.

As quickly as it started, it disappeared, and Katie stood back up to her full height. Glancing around at the people watching in concern, Katie grabbed Janet's arm and pulled her towards the parking lot. "Let's get out of here."

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The stargate deactivated in the background and Jack made his way down the ramp. "Dixon, you son of a bitch, who in God's name would make you a general?"

Dixon, standing at the end of the ramp, laughed. "I was the only one naïve enough to take the job."

"Now that," Jack said, stopping in front of his old friend and colleague. "I believe."

Dixon laughed, and then shook his head. "Man, you look exactly like you did the last day I saw you."

Jack grinned, but the small smile never reached his eyes. "I'd love to say the same, Dave. But, damn, you got old!"

The men's laughter came to an abrupt end when the blast doors opened and a familiar voice sounded out. "O'Neill."

Jack froze, his body turning to the noise slowly. "Teal'c!" he exclaimed, and in long, fast strides, Jack made it to his teammate and flung his arms around him.

The two warriors embraced in a manly, yet emotional hug, and exchanged quiet, warmhearted words between them. Seconds later, Daniel joined his other two teammates, and they began a short conversation before Dixon cut in.

"I'm sorry I have to shorten your reunion, Jack. But, we've got a jet waiting to take us to DC. There are meetings up the wahzoo waiting for us."

Jack nodded, and after a quick nod to the other members of the SGC, who had gathered to see the return of the great Jack O'Neill, the men were off.

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a/n: For anyone upset about Katie's wildness, you have to consider her environment. She was raised by a man she knows isn't her father, and who's never home to take care of her anyways. She knows she's different and has the weight of keeping all of that hidden from the rest of the world. Not to mention, she's Jack's blood, and at the age where most teenagers start to rebel. All-in-all, she could be much worse!


	3. Chapter 3

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Katie was never one who could sleep more than a few hours at a time. So, only three and a half hours after she and Janet had finally gone to bed, the young woman was back up and out the door. She jogged her normal ten mile route, and then came back and had a shower before starting on cleaning the house.

She was a very tidy person, and since Pete never lifted a finger to clean anything in the house, all the housework was left to Katie. She normally left the house pretty clean, but last night, she and Janet had left quite a mess while they were getting ready to go out, so Katie quietly picked up the clothes and make-up and continued tidying up the house.

By 9:30, Katie couldn't wait any longer, and started up the vacuum cleaner. Only minutes later, Janet came stumbling out of the bedroom, her brown hair a mess, and her tiny green eyes squinting from the mid-morning sun shining in the window.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" Katie sang to her best friend. "Sleep well?"

Janet replied with a glare and a grunt and then stumbled on through the house to the bathroom.

Katie laughed in amusement as she watched her friend stagger down the hall towards the bathroom. When she heard the bang of the bathroom door slam shut, she laughed quietly and shook her head, still pushing the vacuum cleaner around the room.

"I need your help with my experiment today," Katie told Janet an hour later, after she was showered, dressed, fed, and finally fully awake.

Janet nodded. "As long as I'm home by noon."

"You should be," Katie replied, knowing Mr. and Mrs. Wells always insisted that Janet be home by noon after staying the night somewhere. "I already loaded them up in your car. We can go to that field on the other side of the park, and test them there. Then, you can drop me back off at home. Sound good?"

Janet nodded again.

"Great! Let's go then," Katie exclaimed and grabbed her friend's arm, practically dragging her out the door. Just as they reached the front door, Katie whistled and called out, "Here boy!"

Seconds later, Pete's mutt came running up to Katie. Katie picked the small dog up in her arms and set him in the backseat of the car. "Eww, Katie! My car better not smell like dog after this!"

Katie rolled her eyes and hopped into the passenger side.

When they got to the field, Katie pulled out two circular devices the size of large hula-hoops, and her laptop. "Here, Janet. Take this one and walk all the way across the field to the tree line. That's about one hundred yards away."

Janet grumbled, but knowing better than to argue with Katie when she's trying out an experiment, she started walking with the large ring. "What are you going to do?" she asked while Katie pressed keys on her laptop.

"I'm going to test the rings and see if they work. I already sent a computer program to make sure that no satellites will pick up on our experiment, and I have to correlate the distance and do a little math to get a wormhole to form between the two rings, but it should only take a few minutes…."

"You made a stargate!" Janet squawked in surprise, stopping and walking back towards her friend. "Are you kidding me?"

Katie, still absorbed with her work on the laptop, just nodded at her friend. "Yeah, well, it can't do interstellar travel, I don't have enough power. I guess you could call these travel gates," she finished, lifting her head and smiling at Janet. "Since they're smaller and can be moved easily."

Janet let out a deep breath. She opened her mouth to say something but quickly closed it and just shook her head in defeat. "I don't even want to know," she muttered, before turning and continuing her trek across the field.

"Oh wait!" Katie yelled, running up and handing Janet a walkie-talkie. "Take this so we don't have to scream our heads off."

When Janet finally got to the tree line, she hit the button on the walkie-talkie and told Katie she was ready.

Katie finished up with the program she was doing and connected her laptop to her ring. Pressing the "enter" button, Katie backed away and watched as the screen on the laptop ran through a bunch of numbers and then the ring slowly started coming to life.

She hit the button on her walkie-talkie. "It's starting to work!"

Seconds later, the ground started to shake and the ring hummed as a wormhole formed inside of it. "It worked!" Katie yelled through the device in her hands. "What's on your end?"

"It looks like blue water," Janet replied back.

"That's the wormhole. Hang on, I'm sending Bruiser through."

Janet's eyes widened at the thought of the small dog going through the wormhole, but before she could hit her friend and ask her if she was crazy, the small dog came running through the event horizon. "It worked! It worked! He came through!" Janet screamed into the walkie-talkie.

The girls spent a little more time experimenting with the gates before they packed it up and started back home. "How were you able to make those?" Janet finally asked when she pulled back into Katie's drive-way.

Katie shrugged. "I just knew how. I don't know how. I just did."

Janet nodded, used to this answer. She got it a lot from Katie.

Katie took the gates and laptop and returned them to her "lab" in the basement. Years ago, she had made a room in the basement and kept all of her experiments in it. She would work for hours down there, and Pete knew nothing about it. She had a special lock that she made herself, and no one could get inside.

After putting the gates back in the room, Katie set her laptop down on the worktable, and left the room, locking it behind her. Just as she reached the top stair of the basement, she heard her cellphone ringing. She rushed to her room and quickly grabbed her phone.

It turned out to be Rob on the phone, and after talking to him for awhile, the two decided to meet up for lunch.

They met at a small diner not far from Katie's house at 2:00. Lunch went very well, and the two ended up spending the rest of the afternoon together.

It was already turning dark when Rob finally walked Katie up to her front porch. Katie was somewhat nervous, not sure if Rob was planning on kissing her, and unsure if she even wanted him to. Sure, he was attractive, but Katie had only just met him, and Caleb's words about not trusting him were echoing in her mind.

"So, tell me," Katie started up just as they reached her porch. "Why are you at the Academy?"

Rob looked taken aback as he stared at Katie and blinked. "Uh, what do you mean?"

Katie shrugged, and took the opportunity to put some distance between them by taking a step towards her front door. "Well, most people join the air force for one of two reasons. Either they have some childhood fantasy of flying, or it's a family thing. Like Caleb. His dad is a general, and his two older brothers are Air Force pilots, and his younger brother is already accepted into the Academy for next year. So, which one are you?" she asked, her arms crossed over her chest and a mischievous smirk on her face.

Rob laughed. "Well, contrary to most of the people at the Academy, I actually don't want to fly."

"Really?" Katie said in surprise. "So, then it's a family thing?"

Rob shrugged and leaned against the porch railing. "You could say that. My dad wasn't Air Force though. He was a marine."

"A marine, really?" Katie replied in astonishment. "So, how did the son of a jar-head end up at the Air Force Academy?"

"He _was_ a marine. He's not anymore. Actually, he's in Leavenworth."

"What? Are you kidding?" Katie exclaimed.

Rob shook his head. "Nope, not at all. See, my dad was asked to do something for his country, and then once he did it, some other officers decided it was distasteful, and charged him with a bunch of crimes. He's been in Leavenworth since. I couldn't very well join the marines after that."

Katie just nodded, not knowing what else to say.

"Thank you for spending your day with me," Rob broke the silence a few seconds later.

Katie nodded again. "My pleasure. I do have to go now though, I have plans with my friends tonight."

Rob nodded and stepped up to Katie as she opened her door. "Can I call you again?" he asked, his voice low and husky.

Katie swallowed. "Yeah."

"Good," he replied, and then lowered his head and kissed her softly on the side of her mouth.

Katie pulled back quickly and smiled up at the cadet. "Okay, well goodnight," she breathed out quickly, and then stepped inside the house.

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Matt Dixon's party was just like every other high school party. Alcohol was available, the music was cranked way too loud, and barely-clad teenagers were dancing and making out in all areas of the Dixon's large home.

Katie became bored quickly, and when she finally got her opportunity, she managed to sneak into General Dixon's home office. She spent a good forty-five minutes inside the small room, and still she could find absolutely nothing on anyone named, "Jack." When Janet knocked on the closed door, and yelled that people were starting to come back in from the fight that broke out between two boys, (Thanks to Katie's wonderful acting skills.) Katie put everything back the way she found it, and left the general's office in defeat.

Paul Cooper, a boy in Matt's grade who had a huge crush on Katie, came up and wrapped his arm around her, handing her a drink of something. Katie smelled it, decided it wasn't toxic, and took a small sip. She knew Jack had something to do with the SGC. She just needed to find out what so that she could find him again. He had been her anchor for years, especially after her mom was taken, she needed him back. She was lost without him. Katie sighed, took another drink of the concoction in her hand, and then set off to find Janet. She was ready to go home.

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"_I had my first French kiss."_

"_What?"_

_Katie giggled. "My first French kiss."_

"_You're not old enough for that yet!"_

"_I'm thirteen! How much older do I need to be?"_

"_Twenty-two! At the earliest!" Jack cried._

_Katie giggled. "It was at a party. My friend, Tasha, had a boy-girl party and we all played a game called, 'Spin the Bottle.'_

"_Ahh, say no more. I already know where this is going."_

"_You know the game?"_

"_Let's just say, I was the 'Spin the Bottle' king in my day." _

"_I didn't know the tongue was involved."_

_Jack laughed. "You didn't?"_

"_No! It was bad enough when I smelled his garlic breath, but then he opened his mouth, and it was all hot and wet, and then he stuck his tongue in my mouth, and I started gagging. For the life of me, I don't see what people like about that!"_

_Jack laughed, his body bending over as he fought for air. "You gagged on his tongue? Oh, that is the funniest thing I've heard in a long time!"_

_Katie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Jack. "It's not funny!"_

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

"_Jack?"_

"_Katie?"_

"_Have you ever been in love before?"_

"_A couple of times, why?"_

"_Has it ever been forbidden?"_

"_What?" Jack asked, choking slightly in surprise._

"_Forbidden? I think I love someone, but I shouldn't."_

"_Why not? Other than the fact that you're only fifteen and shouldn't know what love is yet."_

_Katie glared at Jack. "He's older than me. Four years. And, his dad doesn't like me. He thinks I'm trouble. Not to mention that his little brother is one of my best friends, and I'm supposed to hate him."_

"_You're supposed to hate him?"_

"_Yeah, it's who we are. I've known him my whole life and our favorite way of communicating is screaming at each other. It's what we do."_

"_So, why do you think you love him now?"_

"_It started a few weeks ago. We were doing our normal yelling at each other, and then all of a sudden, he grabbed me and started kissing me. It got kind of heated before we heard footsteps and broke apart. Now, every time I'm near him, my stomach tightens and I start trembling and sweating in odd places. We've gone back to our normal, hate-hate relationship, but I can't get rid of these feelings."_

"_I think I liked you better when you thought tongues were gross."_

"_Life was sure less complicated then."_

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Jack woke up with a start. The dream quickly fading away from his conscious. Jack shook his head, trying to recall what he had dreamt. It was important. Ever since he woke up from stasis, he had this horrible feeling like he was forgetting something really important. As much as he tried to remember, he just couldn't. But this dream. This dream had something to do with it. He just knew it. But what?

The day went on like they had for the week. Jack had breakfast in the commissary, spent some time with Daniel and Teal'c, then went back to the quarters Dixon had given him and surrendered himself to the stacks of reports that had to do with Carter and Ba'al.

Ba'al, that snaky, son of a bitch, had taken Carter as his host! The only knowledge the SGC had on why, was from a tok'ra agent who was undercover during the time of the blending. Apparently, Ba'al had captured Carter during an SG-1 mission and wanted Carter's knowledge, and when she refused, he decided that he was done with his host's body, and took over Carter's instead.

Carter's knowledge, combined with Ba'al's, made the goa'uld practically unstoppable. He took out the remaining system lords, and was now in control of almost every goa'uld-occupied planet. In the past ten years, Ba'al had built himself quite a nice fortress that, with Carter's technical abilities, was impenetrable to anyone but Ba'al and his jaffa.

Dixon had already consented into allowing Jack to take on Ba'al once he read up on everything from the last seventeen years. There was nothing left for him. Everyone was seventeen years older than they were the last time Jack saw them, and it was like a different world to him now. He no longer belonged, and there was nothing keeping him here. He decided that very first night he was back on earth, that he would do everything he could to free Carter from Ba'al. He'd spend the rest of his life on it if he had to. He wouldn't give up until Carter was free. It would be his last mission.

"Hey Jack. Are you ready to go?" Daniel asked, barging into Jack's quarters.

"What?" Jack asked in confusion, finally looking up from the reports.

"To Dixon's. Remember, the picnic he's throwing at his house today for you?"

"Oh. Was that today?"

"Yeah, he said Saturday, and it's Saturday. You've been home for a week now, Jack."

Jack just nodded and stood up.

Daniel smiled warmly at his friend as he watched him grab his leather jacket off the back of a chair. "There's good news, too. I just heard back from DC. They checked everything out, and said you can go back to your house whenever you want. The only people who still live on that street is a really old couple at the very end, but they both are horribly near-sighted and are already showing signs of dementia, so no one should recognize you."

Jack nodded. "My house is still the same?"

Daniel nodded eagerly and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Yeah, exactly. Well, Sam stayed there for awhile after she divorced Pete, but pretty much it's just the same."

"She divorced Pete?" Jack asked in surprise.

Daniel nodded his head as Jack shut the door to his quarters. "Yeah, she only married him because she was pregnant with Katie at the time. She tried to make it work, but she just couldn't. She finally left him and she and Katie lived at your house for awhile before she was taken by Ba'al and Katie moved back in with Pete. You might find a few of Sam's things around your house, but all Katie's were taken when she left."

"I still can't believe Carter has a daughter," Jack said softly.

Daniel smiled somberly as the two men stepped onto the elevator. "Yeah, we were all pretty surprised when we found out she was pregnant. But, Sam was a great mom, and Katie is a wonderful girl. She has a bit of a wild-streak, but my God, Jack, the girl is brilliant. I think she's even smarter than Sam."

Jack scrunched his face as the name, Katie, rang a bell in his mind. How did he know that name? Why did it seem so important to him?

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Janet Wells laughed at a joke that Matt told her as they sat at a picnic table in the Dixon's backyard. The yard and house were filled with airmen, all come to see the great Colonel O'Neill return from some place the kids didn't have the authorization to know about. "Your dad doesn't know anything about the party last week?" Janet asked quietly when her laughter had died down.

"No, he's been pretty excited over the return of this Col. O'Neill to notice anything right now. I swear, I saw him salivating at the mouth over that colonel. You'd think he was some sort of celebrity or something.

Janet shrugged her petite shoulders. "Who knows, maybe he is. It's not like anyone would tell us if he was."

"True," Matt replied, but before he could say anything else, Janet's cell phone rang.

Janet grabbed the phone and looked at the screen. "It's Katie," she told Matt before hitting the button and putting the phone to her ear. "What's up, Katie?"

"Janet, can I come over?"

"I'm not at home. Why? What's wrong?"

Janet heard the trembled sigh on the line before Katie answered. "Pete decided to come home and he brought some nasty whore with him. He told me to find somewhere to stay for the night, and I'm way too disgusted to go back in and get anything."

"Shit!" Janet cursed on her line, looking up at Matt with sorrow-filled eyes. "I'm at Matt's right now."

"What are you doing there?" Katie asked in hurt surprise. Her friends were hanging out without her.

"Some air force picnic thing my parents dragged me to. Matt and I are both bored out of our minds anyways. Why don't you come here and then the three of us will go out to a movie or something and then you can spend the night at my house. My parents won't mind, I'm sure of it."

"What about General Dixon?" Katie asked in a small voice.

"What about your dad?" Janet asked Matt.

Just then, General Dixon walked by within earshot of the kids. "Hey dad," Matt yelled. "You don't mind if Katie comes over and the three of us head off for a movie, do you?"

"No, knock yourself out. Just make sure you introduce yourself to Colonel O'Neill before running off. Both of you," Dave said, giving them his general-look before shuffling over to another table where SG-3 sat.

"Not a problem, Katie," Janet said back into the phone.

"Okay, I'm on my way," Katie replied and then hung up her phone.

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"What'd you get?"

"He seems to have a thing for this blonde chick. Her name's Katie Shanahan. She's a bit wild. But, she seems to be a friend of his family, she might be our ticket in."

"Katie Shanahan. Hmm, that name sounds familiar. I'll run a check on her, in the meantime, stick with Dixon. Don't let him out of your sight. I want to know where he is at all times. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. You're dismissed."

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a/n: Please review. (Sniffle.) I hardly got any reviews last chapter. (Sniffle. Snort. Sob.) I'm okay, really. (Sob.) Also, I should have another chapter of "A Son for a Father," up tomorrow…………… hopefully.


	4. Chapter 4

a/n: Italics are flashbacks, and I centered them so that they, hopefully, won't be confusing. Please review and let me know if it was easy to read or not.

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"Well, well, well, look who the cat dragged in," Captain Donaldson announced just as Katie walked in the front door of the Dixon home. "If it isn't our favorite little trespasser."

"Aww, your favorite?" Katie replied as squeakily sarcastic as she could. "I feel so loved."

Captain Donaldson laughed and flung his arm around Katie's shoulders. "As well you should, little lady."

Katie rolled her eyes and pushed the captain's arm off of her. "Have you seen Janet Wells and Matt Dixon?"

"Ah, I believe I saw them huddled in a corner in the backyard."

"Thanks," Katie replied and started walking towards the backdoor when a voice caught her attention. Freezing in her spot, she slowly turned around and squealed as she took off running into the next room. "Daniel!" she shrieked as she jumped into his arms.

"Katie! Hey, how have you been?" Daniel replied breathlessly as the teenager strangled him with her hug.

"Okay, how 'bout you?" she asked, her arms still tightly embraced around one of her favorite people in the whole universe.

"Busy," was Daniel's short answer. "I want you to meet someone," he said, pulling away and turning towards Jack, who was standing next to him.

Katie pulled back as well. She had zoned in on Daniel the moment she heard his voice and had completely blocked out everyone else in the room, but as she slowly pulled away, she could definitely feel the presence of someone else standing next to the aging archaeologist.

Katie turned her head and her eyes widened remarkably. Her breath hitched in her throat at the same time she exhaled, "Jack."

Jack lifted his eyebrows and gazed down at the girl who looked so much like her mother.

Daniel looked from Katie to Jack and back again in bewilderment. "Uh, yeah, Colonel Jack O'Neill. He's been gone since before you were born, but he was our teammate for seven years before that."

The room started to spin at the same time images began rapidly flashing in front of Katie's eyes. Past moments between she and her mom, past moments in her safe place with Jack. How had she never connected them before?

Colonel.

Sir.

All along, her Jack had been her mom's Jack.

"_Mommy, who's Jack?"_

"_What? Who told you about Jack?"_

_Katie shrugged and played with the crayon in her hand. "You miss him."_

_Sam sucked in a deep breath. "Yes, yes, I do. Very much."_

"_He's just sleeping."_

"_How do you know that, Katie?" Sam asked her daughter._

_Katie shrugged again. "Cause you do."_

There was only the one time that her mother had thought of him as Jack, and that had been long before Katie ever found her safe place. She had always referred to him as colonel or sir, even in her thoughts. Katie had never once connected the two.

Colonel Jack O'Neill. He was the man her mother loved. He was the man who she thought of constantly. The man she cried for. The man she prayed for. The man she knew was responsible for Katie's "gifts."

With that thought, the spinning room immediately halted and the flashes in her eyes were gone. Katie blinked and stared at the man before her.

Her father.

"_He's just sleeping."_

He was in stasis.

_Do you think you'll ever get out of here?"_

"_I don't know. You tell me. You're able to come and go."_

"_Only my mind is here. My body is still at home in my room. I think your body is somewhere else, too. You need to find out where your body is and then maybe your mind can return to it."_

She had found his mind while his body slept. Katie let out a small gasp as her mind continued to bombard her with more and more discoveries.

Her safe place had never been a place at all. It was Jack's mind. Her father's mind. Somehow, Katie had managed to find her way inside her father's consciousness, not unlike the way she would often visit her mother's.

"So you're Katie?" Jack's voice, so familiar, yet so foreign to hear aloud, cut into her thoughts, and Katie jerked her eyes to meet his once again. "You look just like her," he said softly, his warm smile soothing and distant at the same time.

And then Katie realized.

He didn't remember. He didn't have a clue who she really was. She stared at him and even though she knew without a doubt that he was her father, and the man she had bared her deepest secrets to for years, there was still something different about him. Something missing. She could feel the loss all the way down to her bones.

In a soft, almost sad voice, Katie replied. "My mother thought of you often. She missed you very much."

And, as Jack's face fell, and pain flickered across it at her words, Katie felt her heart fill with joy.

He missed her too.

Daniel cleared his throat from beside her, but before anyone could say a word, a hand grabbed Katie's arm, and a familiar voice sneered in her ear. "Katie! Why can't you ever listen to me?" Caleb growled at her.

"Son?" Dixon asked and gave his son a stern look as he joined the group.

Caleb looked up at his father and Katie noticed his neck start to turn red. Glancing at Daniel and then Jack, Caleb looked back down at Katie and then back up at the three men watching him with curiosity. "Uh, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak with Katie for a moment," he announced, his voice cracking as he addressed the older men.

"Ow, Dixon! Let go of my arm, you baboon!" Katie yelped and yanked her arm free.

He only responded by wrapping it around her waist and pushing her towards the kitchen. "We'll only be a moment," he called out over his shoulder as he continued to push her out of the room.

Jack raised his eyebrows and passed a questioning glance to General Dixon.

Dixon smiled and shrugged. "They're…….odd," was his simple answer. "They've always been like that with each other. They're favorite way of communicating is screaming at each other."

Jack cocked his head to the side as Dixon's words echoed in his mind. He had heard that before. Where the hell had he heard that before?

"Hey, dad, Donaldson said Katie was here," Matt Dixon announced as he and Janet came walking into the room and stopping next to General Dixon.

"Caleb just ran off with her, she'll be back in a moment," Dixon replied. "Have you two met Colonel O'Neill yet?"

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Matt immediately replied, reaching his hand out to shake with Jack. "I'm Mathew Dixon."

"Mathew," Jack replied with a grin. "You threw up on my rug once when you were a baby."

Matt looked embarrassed as his cheeks slowly started turning pink. "I'm sorry for that, sir," he replied sheepishly, which caused Janet to laugh from beside him.

"And this is Simon and Marci Wells' daughter, Janet," Dave announced as Janet giggled.

Jack's eyes widened. "Janet Wells? Wow! You've grown up as well."

Janet smiled warmly and shook his hand, but something nagged at the back of her mind. She saw this man before. His face, his smile. He was very familiar to her. Where had she seen him before?

Jack pulled back from shaking Janet's hand and shook his empty beer bottle. "I'm going to go snatch another one," he told Daniel and Dave and then nodded at the two teens. "Be right back."

The men nodded and then started a conversation with Matt and Janet. Jack walked into the kitchen and immediately went on alert.

Even after seventeen years of inactivity, his mind and body were still honed with special forces training, and the darkened breakfast nook off of the kitchen instantly caught his attention.

He could see the two young people inside the room, even though they were yet unaware of his presence. Pausing, he listened and watched as they continued with their conversation.

"I told you to stay away from him! How could you spend an entire day with him? And now he's calling you!"

"Oh, Caleb, will you chill out! He's harmless. I don't know why you're so worked up over this. When have I ever listened to you?"

Caleb growled and took a step closer to Katie and Jack froze in his spot, his eyes picking up on every subtle move the boy made against Carter's daughter.

"I don't trust Baker, Katie. Don't get caught up in this……please," Caleb said in a low, pleading voice.

Katie scoffed. "What do you care?"

With those words, Caleb's hands came up and rested on Katie's shoulders, as he lowered his head to her level. "You know I care," he whispered.

Jack saw the look of longing stretch across Katie's face and watched as she bit her bottom lip, a gesture she surely inherited from her mother. And at that moment, he felt an overwhelming feeling of protectiveness wash over him. He wanted to protect her. From hurt and pain, both physical and emotional. He wanted to protect her from it all. And, as quickly as this feeling washed over him, he just as quickly reasoned that his intense feelings were so strong because she was Carter's kid. And in extension, he cared for her because he cared for her mother.

Jack watched as Caleb played with a strand of Katie's hair that had fallen in her face. He twiddled it in his fingers before lovingly brushing it back behind her ears and meeting her gaze.

"_Have you ever been in love before?"_

"_A couple of times, why?"_

"_Has it ever been forbidden?"_

"_What?" Jack asked, choking slightly in surprise._

"_Forbidden? I think I love someone, but I shouldn't."_

The words echoed in his mind so quickly, Jack wasn't sure if he really heard them or not. Forbidden? Love? Why couldn't he remember?

Starting to get uncomfortable, Jack coughed to alert the couple to his presence, and he watched as they jumped away from each other. He raised an eyebrow questioningly at them, but then turned quickly and opened the refrigerator, grabbing a bottle of beer out of it.

Shutting the door, he turned back around to the flushed young adults and uncapped his bottle. "Your friends are waiting for you, Katie," Jack said softly, his eyes locking on hers and that feeling of déjà vu washing over him once again.

Katie cleared her throat, and glanced at Caleb guiltily before stepping out of the breakfast nook. "Uh, thank you, Jack. I-I should be going," she stuttered, and with one last fleeting look at Caleb, she shuffled out of the room, her head turning back and glancing at Jack just as she reached the kitchen door.

She looked at him as though she was memorizing every single detail about him, and Jack didn't doubt that that was exactly what she was doing. As soon as she was gone, Jack turned back to Caleb, who was looking at the door with a grief-stricken look on his face. When he felt Jack's gaze, he turned to look at the older man.

"It's not what you think," he told Jack.

"How do you know what I think?" Jack replied.

Caleb shrugged and then sighed deeply. "I would never hurt her."

"I never said that you would."

Caleb ran a hand through his short hair in distress. "I-she, it's hard to explain."

"I bet it is," Jack responded, and noticed how his short, indirect answers were starting to annoy the young cadet. "She's only sixteen," Jack announced, that feeling of protectiveness washing over him once again.

Caleb looked at the colonel incredulously. "I know that," he said in a monotone voice.

Jack tilted his head up, a silent way of dismissing the boy, that Caleb instantly picked up on. Sighing heavily, Caleb walked out of the kitchen, but even though he said the words under his breath, Jack still heard him clearly as he reached the kitchen door.

"Doesn't stop the way I feel."

Jack smiled sadly as Caleb's words reached his ears. 'Oh, the pain of forbidden love,' he mused as an image of Carter behind Apophis' force shield flashed in his mind and an aching torrent of regret flooded Jack's soul.

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a/n: Sorry this chapter is kind of short, but it seemed like a good place to stop. Next chapter will reveal why Jack looks familiar to Janet. And, for those of you who have asked, yes Sam will be coming into this story soon.


	5. Chapter 5

**Merry Christmas!** I'm now super far behind because I took the time to update this, so now I must run off and try to catch up. The rest of the week, I am going to be swamped, so I won't be getting anymore updates up until after the holidays. I hope you all have a very blissful holiday season.

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Jack walked out of the kitchen only about a minute behind Katie, and saw the three teens talking with Daniel, Teal'c, and Dave. He approached slowly, a dull ache at the back of his head that seemed to be pushing against his brain, furiously trying to break that barrier that was blocking his repressed memories from surfacing.

"You kids be good," he heard Dave say just as he stopped next to the general.

Katie glanced at him, and he couldn't help but notice that she looked at him with an air of familiarity. How could she know him? Why did he feel like he knew her? Why the hell did his head hurt?

"We will, dad," Matt replied and Janet nodded along in acceptance.

General Dixon looked pointedly at Katie. "Katie?"

Katie grinned mischievously back at the general.

Dixon crossed his arms and glared down at the blonde girl with a challenging look on his face.

Katie tried to hold her straight face, but only seconds later burst up laughing. After rolling her eyes, she looked back up at the general, amusement still evident on her face. "Oh, I promise not to drag the kiddies into trouble, general."

Daniel let out a small laugh and a tiny grin pulled at the corner of Teal'c's mouth.

"See that you don't, young lady," Dixon replied, and even though he was teasing the teen, everyone knew that he was also quite serious, with good reason. Katie was too often getting herself, and her friends, in trouble.

"The movies going to start soon, we've got to go," Matt announced after looking at his watch."

The adults wished the kids fun, and they started for the door. Katie turned just before walking away, and looked at Jack. "Goodbye, Jack. I hope to see you again soon."

Jack smiled warmly and nodded. "I'm sure you will, Katie."

When the teens were finally to Matt's car, Katie grabbed Janet's shirt and pulled her around. "That was him!" she said almost breathlessly.

"Him who?" Janet asked, as Matt just watched in silence. He had learned his lesson long ago, and whenever Katie and Janet started speaking in code, he knew not to comment, or else he would get sucked into whatever scheme they were working on. Not that they weren't fun or anything, it was just that they tended to have a knack for getting caught, and he didn't really enjoy being grounded until the end of the century.

"Jack!" Katie squawked.

"What?"

"Colonel O'Neill," Katie replied, and Matt found himself quite interested in what the two girls were discussing. "Jack! Jack is Colonel O'Neill."

Janet's eyes widened in surprise. "Your Jack?"

"Uh-huh," Katie replied cheerily, a smile happily stretched across her face.

"Imaginary Jack?" Matt asked, and then immediately chastised himself. Damn it! Now he was involved!

"He's not imaginary!" Katie yelled, stamping her foot on the ground in a mini-tantrum. "That was him! Colonel O'Neill."

Janet gasped and pressed her hand over her mouth at the same time that her face paled slightly. "I believe you," she whispered.

"You do?" Katie and Matt asked simultaneously in surprise. It was never this easy to convince Janet of something.

Janet nodded. "I have to show you something, come on, we need to go to my house."

"What about the movie?" Matt asked, but after receiving identical glares from Katie and Janet, just grumbled inaudibly and got in the car.

A few minutes later, the teens were all assembled in the Wells' living room. Janet excused herself and left the room, returning seconds later with a large photo album in her hand. She motioned for Katie and Matt to sit on each side of her on the sofa, and she opened the book.

"When my mom was pregnant with me, the ultrasound tech told her I was a boy, so when I was born a girl, my parents were a bit unprepared. Dr. Jackson came to see me right after I got home from the hospital, and when he found out I was a girl, he went back to the base and organized a baby shower. It was a surprise to my parents. Matt's dad was my dad's team leader at the time, and he told him that there was a base barbeque at one of the colonel's houses, and he had to show up with me and my mom. When we got there, they were surprised to find out that it was a baby shower. A whole bunch of people from the base were there," Janet rambled on as she flipped through the pages. She stopped at a photo of Matt when he was about a year old happily licking at an ice cream cone, his cherub face covered in the sticky mess, and the two girls cooed over him for a few seconds before she flipped the page again. "So was your mom," Janet continued, pointing to a photo of the then-Major Samantha Carter. "And, so was Colonel O'Neill," Janet finished, flipping the page and pointing to a photo of Sam and Jack sitting next to each other.

Matt gasped in shock as he looked at the photo of Colonel O'Neill. He looked identical to the man who was currently in his house. But how? This was over seventeen years ago!

Janet kept on flipping pages and pointing to a few more pictures of Jack. There was one with Sam holding Janet and Jack grinning down at the sleeping infant. Another was a photo of Marci opening presents, everyone was watching the new mother, except in the back of the photo where you could just make out Sam and Jack. They were facing each other, and seemed to be in their own little world.

"When I was younger, I used to look at this photo album all the time. As soon as I met Colonel O'Neill, I knew he looked familiar, I just couldn't pinpoint where I'd seen him until you said he was your Jack. And then it just hit me, he was the colonel from this book. But how can that be? Why does he look exactly the same?"

"That's what I was wondering," Matt spoke up.

Katie sighed, realizing she was going to have to tell her friends information that she knew for certain was top-secret. It wasn't like it was the first time she had told them classified information. For crying out loud, she was the one who told them what their parents really did for a living! But still, she always felt a bit guilty for leaking top-level information, even if it was to her best friends, who she trusted with her life. "He was in stasis. That's why his body hasn't aged in seventeen years."

"What?" Matt shrieked. "You're kidding me!"

Katie shook her head. "No, I'm serious. He had some sort of alien device infect his brain and slowly take it over. The only way to save him was to put him in stasis until they could find a cure. Apparently, they recently found one."

"How do you know this?" Matt couldn't help but ask, even as he lectured himself about getting involved.

He wasn't expecting his close friend to look up at him with the saddest expression he had seen on her face since her mother disappeared. "He's my father."

Her declaration left both of her friends speechless.

"Katie," Janet softly sighed a few moments later, but Katie quickly interrupted whatever she was going to say.

"He's the guy I've been going to in my mind. Somehow I was able to get inside his mind when he was in stasis. My mother knew that Colonel O'Neill was my father. She thought about him all the time. I never connected the two. I'm so stupid. I don't know how I overlooked it, but I did. It makes so much sense though. I can hear other people's thoughts, you've both known that since we were all in daycare, but there's only two people who I've ever been able to hold conversations with in my head. My mom and Jack. I can connect with them in a way that I can't with anyone else. I mean, it only makes sense, I can connect with them because they are more connected to me than anyone else. Because they're my parents."

"Katie," Janet sighed again. Even though she really didn't know what to say to her best friend.

"So Pete really isn't your dad?" Matt exclaimed, looking at Katie wide-eyed.

Both girls giggled at the dumbstruck look on the boy's face.

Katie shook her head. "I told you he wasn't a long time ago."

"I know, I just thought you were saying that. I didn't know you actually knew for certain that he wasn't. Does he know?"

Katie shook her head again. "He kind of suspects sometimes, but he doesn't know for sure. My mom never told him and he's too lazy and into his own loser-life to really care enough to test my DNA against his."

Matt nodded in acceptance and looked back at the photo of Jack and Sam. "It really does make sense, though," he said and then immediately snapped his head up to look at his friends. "Oh no! You're not planning on doing something illegal are you? Damn it! You sucked me in!"

Katie and Janet both laughed at the fearful look on Matt's face. Janet stood up and took the book back to her mother's room, and Matt looked up worriedly at Katie as if she held his fate in her hands.

She giggled when she saw the look on his face but shook her head to answer his question. "Don't worry, Matt. There's nothing I can do. I wanted to know where he went, and I found out. He doesn't remember me, I'm not sure why, but there really isn't anything I can do about it right now. I found my real father, I'm happy about that, even if he doesn't know who I really am. But, I promise that if I do feel the need to do something illegal, I won't involve you, okay?"

Matt smiled. "Okay."

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The sun was just setting behind the large mountain in the distance when the black SUV pulled up along side the small red sports car. The man in the car hopped out and jumped into the SUV quickly.

"We ran a check on Dixon's girl. Her name is Katelyn Shanahan and she is the daughter of Colonel Samantha Carter of the SGC, and current host of Ba'al. This girl might be worth more than Dixon. I want you to start keeping tabs on her as well. Can you handle that?"

The man's eyes glazed over. The thought of spending more time with the beautiful young lady and less time with the moody Caleb Dixon was more than pleasing to the young 'Trust' apprentice. "No problem, boss," the man replied before opening the door of the SUV and returning to his beloved sports car.

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**One Month Later:**

Katie walked into Nellie's Diner and immediately sensed a connection. She scanned over the small restaurant until her eyes landed on the source of her connection.

Jack.

His back was turned to her, but she recognized him anyways. She walked over and stopped in front of the booth he was sitting at alone. He was sipping coffee and reading the newspaper when her shadow fell over his table.

"Katie!" he exclaimed when he saw her.

"Hi, Jack. How are you?" she asked cheerily.

He motioned for her to sit in the seat across from him, and so she did. "I'm alright. Just trying to get my bearings back after being gone for so long. How about you? What have you been up to?"

Katie shrugged. "Not much. Just going to school and hanging out. I'm supposed to be meeting someone here."

"Caleb?" Jack questioned with a twinkle in his eyes.

Katie smiled and tried to fight the blush that was creeping up her neck. "No. Not Caleb."

Just then, Robert Baker walked through the door of the diner, and Katie called him over. "Jack, this is Rob. Rob, this is Colonel Jack O'Neill," she introduced them after Rob kissed her soundly on the lips.

Rob's eyes widened in surprise. "_THE_ Colonel Jack O'Neill?" he asked incredulously.

Jack nodded and then made a face at Katie when the young cadet saluted him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. You're a legend."

Jack forced a smile on his face, as pathetic as it looked and then turned back to Katie.

"Uh, Rob, can you get us a table and order some drinks while I tell the colonel good-bye?"

Rob nodded, and after one more quick look at Jack, hurried off to do as Katie said.

"He's a cadet," Katie informed him as soon as Rob scurried off.

"Yeah, I figured. Kind of old for you though. Don't you think?"

Katie shrugged. "He's the same age as Caleb."

"Like I said, kind of old for you, don't you think?"

Katie giggled.

"You should be dating boys your own age."

"Boys my own age are immature idiots."

"And so you've taken to cadets?"

Katie smiled mischievously at Jack, and an image of Charlie with that same exact smile flashed into his mind. He shook it away quickly. No, this wasn't his kid. This was Carter's kid. Carter's kid.

"What can I say? They know how to take orders," Katie replied, and Jack laughed at her answer.

"So, if you're dating this Baker guy, what was that between you and Caleb at the Dixon house?"

Katie sighed and lowered her head. "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

She glanced towards Baker, and then looked back up at her father. "Nothing. He won't let there be."

Jack tilted his head back and looked down at her in understanding. "Ah."

Katie shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Caleb and I, you ever been in love before?" 

"_A couple of times, why?"_

"_Has it ever been forbidden?"_

"Yes," Jack announced out of the blue.

Katie looked at him questioningly. "Yes, what?"

"Yes, I've been in love before, and yes, it's been forbidden."

Katie narrowed her eyes at Jack in confusion, but before she could ask him what he was talking about, she already knew what he was saying. "With my mother?" she asked, unaware that she was holding her breath.

Jack licked his bottom lip and gazed sadly at the young woman before him. He could deny it. But, he knew that she already knew. He wasn't sure how. Just something inside of him told him she knew a heck of a lot. He nodded slowly, the heartbroken look on his face not going away. "Yeah," he whispered.

Katie swallowed in an attempt to moisten her incredibly dry throat. "She loved you, too, and she knew she could never stop. That's why she left Pete. She couldn't keep living a lie. She never loved him, not really. You already had her heart."

Jack's heartbroken look changed to a more questioning one. How on earth did she know all this? Was it true, or was she just making it all up? Daniel did say she was a bit on the wild side. Would she make all this up just to torment him?

Before either of them said another word, Jack's cellphone rang out, and Jack broke eye contact to answer it.

"O'Neill."

"Hey, Jack, it's Dixon. We've just got some intel on Ba'al. How fast can you be here?"

"Give me ten."

Jack snapped his phone shut and looked back at Katie, completely surprised by the stunned look on her face.. She couldn't possibly have heard Dixon's voice over the line.

She met his eyes. "Duty calls?" she asked with a croaky voice as she attempted to smile.

"Yeah," Jack told her.

She told him good-bye, and Jack quickly paid for his meal and headed for the door. Just as he crossed the threshold, he heard a voice in his head.

"_Bring her back to me."_

"_I will, I promise," _he thought, as his body filled with a warmth he hadn't felt in a long time.

"_I know you will," _the voice replied.

Jack turned back around to look for Katie in the diner. He saw her a few booths from where they were sitting. She met his eyes immediately, and with an understanding look on her pretty face, she nodded at him.

He nodded back and then stepped through the door. Not having a clue as to what the hell just happened.

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	6. Chapter 6

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Matt Dixon had known about Katie's "special" abilities ever since they were all in daycare together. The little girl had always trusted Matt, Janet, and Caleb, and they were the only ones who ever saw her dance her crayons around the craft table without even touching them, and they were the only ones who played, "tell me what I'm thinking," with her.

It had been so much fun and magical back then. They were all quite young, still believing in magic and fairies and Santa Claus. Matt never questioned how she did what she did, he only rejoiced in the fun of it all.

Caleb, on the other hand, was intrigued by what Katie could do. He would spend hours researching anything he could find about telekinesis and telepathy. When Matt was around ten, he actually asked his brother what he had found out about Katie's abilities, and Caleb had told him that humans only used a small percentage of their brains, and that many people believe that those who are telekinetic or telepathic use those parts of the brain that are normally dormant.

Matt, at the time, never really understood what his brother was saying, but he had always looked up to his brother and figured that Caleb was probably right and, somehow, Katie was able to use more of her brain than normal people. And, he was perfectly okay with that as long as she kept doing her really cool tricks and keeping him well entertained.

Unfortunately, right after Katie's mom went MIA, she stopped entertaining them. At first, she told them all that she no longer could, but Matt didn't believe her one bit. He would test her by saying something totally mean in his head, and when he saw her face flush and her eyes dart to him in anger, he knew for a fact that she could still read his mind, but she still was adamant that she no longer could.

By the time the girls joined him in junior high, he found himself somewhat distant from them. Katie and Janet had grown even closer in the year he had moved out of their school, and as they were all too old for daycare, he had hardly ever seen them in his seventh grade year. They were still friendly, and his group of friends didn't see anything wrong with hanging out with seventh graders, so as the year progressed, the three of them became well-acquainted once again.

However, he found to his own disappointment, that when he would try his old trick of thinking something mean in front of Katie to get a reaction from her, that it no longer worked. She would carry on as if she didn't hear a word he was thinking, and he finally admitted to himself that she had really lost her "special" abilities.

So, now that Katie had finally admitted that she had not lost her abilities, Matt was like a little kid again. It had been over a month since she and Janet had let him in on their knowledge about Colonel O'Neill, and in that time, Matt was, once again, enjoying his immense entertainment in the form of Katie.

"Come on, Katie! Just one more time, please!" Matt whined from his spot on top of the picnic table in the local park.

"Matt, do you have any idea how bad it would look if someone saw it?" Katie chastised from her position in the grass a few yards away.

"Oh, it's practically dark, no one is around. Please! Just one more time?" Matt begged, batting his eyelashes playfully at his friend.

Janet snorted from opposite Katie in amusement, and Katie sighed in defeat. "This is it, Dixon, I'm not doing it again!"

Matt ignored Katie's angry pitch and grinned a huge, open-mouthed, all teeth-showing smile back at her, practically bouncing in his seat in anticipation.

Without Katie so much as looking up, the swings on the nearby swingset started rocking back and forth, slowly at first, but then easily picking up speed until they were very close to looping over the top bar of the swingset.

Matt's eyes danced with amazement at the scene, never getting old of seeing it. Then, on cue, the sand in the sandbox only feet from Matt started swirling around like a tornado, small sand clouds quickly forming and soon blocked the fast-swirling sand storm from sight.

"Come on, come on," Matt sang in excitement. "Do the thing with the teeter-totter! No one's watching!"

Unfortunately, unknown to the three teens, someone WAS watching the scene taking place. He was dressed in black and carefully hiding behind a hedge far enough away not to be noticed, yet close enough to hear the teens conversing easily.

He was gleefully watching everything in sight, every so often, jotting notes down in the small pad of paper he had clutched in his hand. This was good! This was so very good. His superiors would be so proud!

"**What the hell are you doing, Katie**?" came roaring out of nowhere, and immediately the swings stopped their dance, the sand dropped like heavy rocks back into the sandbox, and the teeter-totter did one more totter before freezing in its place.

'Caleb Dixon, damn!' thought the man in the bushes. It was obvious from the angry look on the man's face that the young cadet was all too well-aware of this new interesting information about the beautiful Katelyn Shanahan.

The angry man stormed over to Katie, his face red in obvious rage. "Are you crazy? What in your right mind would make you do that, _here, _in public, for God's sake? I thought you were smarter than that!"

Katie, her own eyes clouding in fury, stood up to match Caleb's irate stance. "Oh, get over yourself, Dixon! There's no one else around and we all know it!"

Caleb scowled and took another towering step towards Katie, he grabbed a hold of her arm, pulling her closer to him. "You have no idea who could be watching you, Katie," he hissed in her ear.

"Lay off her, Caleb, she only did it because I kept pestering her," Matt cut in to Katie's defense.

Caleb rounded on his younger brother, his eyes flashing with barely constrained rage. "That figures, Matt! You just can't grow up, can you?" he barked at his sibling.

Matt frowned at his brother in surprise and hurt. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You always want to play! You always want to be entertained! Did you even think of the consequences if someone would have seen what she was doing?"

"Chill out, Caleb!" Matt replied in a hurt voice. "No one did, and even if they did, they wouldn't have any proof that it was her."

Caleb growled and stalked towards his brother, his wrath on full display. "Do you think they _need_ proof? They'll take her away and ask questions later! What the hell do you think they'd do once they discovered what she could do? Did you ever think of that? Did you ever think of what a simple brain scan could confirm, you moron?"

Matt's eyes widened in shock, never even considering the tests that could be run on his close friend. Caleb read his expression easily, and his hard gaze softened slightly, but the edge was still in his voice as he answered his own question. "No, I thought not!"

One look at the saddened expression on Matt's face, and Katie immediately felt sorry for her friend. She wanted to get Caleb's anger off of his brother, so she approached Caleb from behind and placed her hand around his waist, effectively drawing his attention away from Matt. "That's enough, Caleb," she told him softly, her voice laced with affection that Matt and Janet rarely heard directed at Caleb.

The tone of her voice was not lost on Caleb, and some of the tension melted away from her simple touch on his waist. He turned around, his arms encircling her and pulling her to him. Damn it! He had been scared to death when he came upon Katie's show, so many bad thoughts running through his mind if she had been caught. He needed her touch, her warmth, and damn it, he didn't care if his brother and Janet were watching!

He held the back of her head with his hand and nuzzled his face deep in her sweet-smelling hair. "Promise me you won't do that again in public, please," he brokenly begged in her ear.

He heard her sniffle and nod into his neck, and that was good enough for Caleb.

The man in the bushes smiled in triumph. This was better than he could believe! Not only did he just discover the find of the century, but he could bring down the Dixon family as well, especially that stuck-up, goody two-shoes, Caleb! Yes, this was the greatest news in the world. Oh, he couldn't wait to tell his father!

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The intel on Ba'al had led Jack, the current SG-1, and SG-3, to a remote planet on the outskirts of the galaxy. Dave had given them forty-eight hours to either confirm or deny the intel, and at forty hours, Jack had sent back SG-3 to request more time.

It appeared that a giant new-age fortress had recently been erected on the planet, yet its new occupants had yet to arrive. The SGC members were guessing this fortress belonged to Ba'al and he would surely come to see it before much longer.

Dixon had given them the go-ahead, ordering them to check in every twelve hours, and the men set up observation posts to keep an eye on any comings and goings in the structure.

After a week on the planet, Jack was starting to give up hope on Ba'al arriving. They were contemplating packing up and leaving behind some surveillance equipment just in case he did finally arrive, when a blast sounded off only meters away from them.

Jaffa came out of nowhere and surrounded the SGC members, and Jack rubbed his hands over his eyes in irritation. How the hell did they get snuck up on?

Jack stood in the center of the SG teams, his annoyance and sarcasm all warmed up and ready to go on the first prime or goa'uld, whichever decided to grace Jack with his speech this time.

Jack knew that the intel reported that the goa'uld would be Ba'al. Jack knew that Ba'al had taken over Carter's body some ten years ago, and Jack knew that the next time he saw Ba'al, it wouldn't be in that cocky, suave body of a man, but in the loving, beautiful body of his former second-in-command.

However, even knowing all of this, Jack was still struck dumb when he was met face-to-face with Ba'al/Colonel Samantha Carter.

He also didn't fail to notice the look of shock on Ba'al's face as well. Of course, the look only lasted a brief second, and then the normal, goa'uld scowl quickly took back over.

"Well, well, well," Ba'al's goa'uld voice floated laughingly out of Carter's mouth. "Look who we have here. If it isn't the great Jack O'Neill, returned to the land of the living. Tell me, _sssiiiirrrrr_," Ba'al purred the last word, looking teasingly at Jack in spitefulness. "How did they finally figure out how to remove the ancient download? That annoying puzzle stumped even your genius Carter. She still thinks about it from time-to-time. Between you and I, I think she really needs to learn how to let things go."

Jack only smirked at the goa'uld before him, his sarcasm soaring to the forefront like it often did during threats of danger. "Ba'al, I must say, you are looking so much better since the last time I saw you."

Ba'al's eyes flashed and a scowl took over his face before he forced it into an evil grin. "Yes, I thought you would approve, O'Neill. After all, your lust for your subordinate was so blatantly obvious to everyone."

Jack sneered at the goa'uld, his menacing frame taking a step closer to the smaller figure in front of him. "I'm going to take great pleasure in removing your slimy snake-ass from Carter and then breaking your neck with my bare hands."

Ba'al smiled, and for a half a second, Jack thought he saw Carter smiling back at him. "Is that a threat, colonel?"

Jack cocked his head, but did not reply to the goa'uld, instead he took a different tactic. He searched Carter's eyes, looking for any sign of the woman he loved. "Carter, I swear to you, I'm going to get him out of there. I swear I'm going to get you home to Katie. You have to help me, Sam. You have to fight him."

Jack couldn't distinguish the look of confusion and horror that crossed Carter's face. He had no idea what to make of it. He just stood there, staring at her, her facial expressions changing like a cloud in the wind. What the hell was going on in that body of hers?

Sam fought with everything she had to push Ba'al away from her memories, but it was a fruitless attempt. She had forced all thoughts and memories of her daughter out of her mind in order to keep her safe when Ba'al had taken over her body. She knew if Ba'al learned of Katie that her life would be in grave danger, and Sam would do anything she could to keep her daughter safe.

But, at the surprise of seeing Colonel O'Neill, and then the sudden name of their daughter coming off his tongue, Sam's memories came flooding back and Ba'al happily took in everything that was flashing in Sam's mind. This was not good! This was not good! This was so very, very bad!

Jack just continued to stare at her, his mouth slightly ajar as her face finally stopped flashing from one expression to another and settled on an over-the-top jubilant look. Her eyes danced in intense pleasure and a large smile took over her pretty face.

"Come Jaffa," she purred. "We have more pressing matters to attend to."

And with that, she turned and walked away. One jaffa butted Teal'c in the back with his staff weapon before joining the entourage back to their ship, but other than that, they all left the men at peace.

At peace in body, but most definitely not in mind.

The men worked their way back to the stargate, the image of Ba'al's evilly ecstatic look on Carter's face haunting Jack the whole way.

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Katie was walking out of her last class of the day, when she was practically bowled over by a voice in her head. A voice she had not heard in ten years……

"_Run baby! He's coming for you, and I can't stop him! Run!"_

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a/n: I wasn't going to update this until Monday, since whenever I update on Friday, I only get about half the normal amount of reviews. (What? It's like pay for me, alright!) But, my gentle, loving heart just knew you were all itching for an update since its been awhile, so I decided to give in and update today. However, it would be so great if you could all prove me wrong about my theory of no one reviewing on Friday, that would just make my day. (Wink, wink.) And, of course, I'll be more willing to update again on Monday!

Yes, Ax, I know what I am, and I don't care!!


	7. Chapter 7

a/n: Yay! I was so happy to get all of your reviews! So, in thanks, you all get a rather long chapter. I haven't written a chapter this long in quite awhile, so I hope everyone enjoys it!

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"I'm telling you, dad, I've never seen anything like it before. She is definitely our ticket in bringing down the SGC for good," the young man spoke in a quiet, yet excited voice across the table from an older man. He darted his eyes to the prison guard on the other side of the room, who was watching their every move intently. The guard was too far away to hear what the two were saying, but the young man still turned his head away as he spoke to his father, just in case the guard could read lips. If it got back that he had slipped information to the feds, whether on purpose or by accident, they would kill him without a second thought.

"And you say she's Samantha Carter's daughter?" the older man asked, his voice just as low as his son's.

He nodded. "Yes sir, she's sixteen now. Quite a looker, as well. I have no idea how she was able to do it."

"Some sort of alien technology, no doubt," the man replied. "Has O'Neill had contact with her since his return?"

"Yes sir. They seem to have gotten pretty close pretty fast."

The older man tilted his head back in thought, and then lowered it to gaze at his son. "He always had a soft-spot for Carter. He probably feels rather protective over her daughter as well. This could be good."

The younger man narrowed his eyes in confusion, not sure what his father was thinking.

"This could work out very well, son. You could bring down the SGC, the Dixons, and O'Neill too. That self-righteous son of a bitch."

The younger man darted his eyes back over to the guard, who was checking his watch. He checked his own, noting that their time was almost up.

"Do you have any idea how their playing this out, son?"

The young man looked up from his watch. "When I left, the Trust was digging for anything that could get her into their hands. Once we've got her, we can do what we want. Her father's a dead-beat who's generally too drunk to notice if she's around or not."

"Time's up!" the guard called out from his corner, just before standing up and adjusting his uniform.

The two men at the table stood up as well. "Promise me, son. Promise me that if you get the chance to take down O'Neill, you do it. You do it for me."

The young man nodded and hugged his father as he whispered in his ear, "I promise."

"Alright, Makepeace, that's enough family bonding," the guard announced, walking over and gesturing for the young man to leave.

The young man took one last look at his father and then left the room.

Robert Makepeace stood at attention, allowing the prison guard to slip the shackles back on his limbs for his walk back to his cell in the Leavenworth Penitentiary.

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"_Run baby! He's coming for you, and I can't stop him! Run!"_

Katie didn't know what to do. Run where? Where could she go that she wouldn't be found? How could she get away? Who could she trust to help her?

Without another thought, Katie pulled out her cell phone and dialed a well-known number.

After two rings, Katie heard a click and, "yeah," come over the line.

"Caleb, I need your help. I have to get out of here!"

"Whoa, Katie slow down, what's going on?"

Katie felt the tear slip down her cheek, and she batted it away in annoyance. "Please, you have to help me!"

"Of course I will, Katie, just tell me what's going on!" Caleb replied, his voice rising in parallel with his stress.

"I will, I'll tell you everything. Meet me at my house, I have to get some stuff."

"Alright, I'll be there in twenty minutes," Caleb announced and quickly flipped his phone shut. He stood in the corridor of the biology department at the Air Force Academy for two seconds, his mind going completely blank in shock as he recollected the frightened sound of Katie's voice. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he looked around at the nearly-empty corridor, assured himself that no teachers or officers were around, and then sprinted down the hallway and out of the building as fast as he could.

It took Katie five minutes to get home. Her heart was still beating at an alarming rate, and she was trembling as her mind whirred with ideas and places where she could go and hide.

She was so deep in thought and worry, that she was barely paying attention to her surroundings. Her feet automatically took her to her house, where she quickly darted up the sidewalk and straight on in to her home.

It was only after three steps inside that her alarm bells finally rang out in her mind. She froze in her position and lifted her head, her eyes already wide in shock. "Pete? What, what are you doing home?" Katie squeaked out, her eyes shooting from Pete to the two men in suits standing on either side of him.

He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his daughter. "I was called out of work. Apparently, someone, using your mother's old credit card, has been buying highly unstable radioactive materials off of the internet. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, now would you?"

Katie tried not to grimace as she glanced once again at the two men beside Pete. It was more than obvious that she was already considered guilty. Before she could say anything, she heard a noise from the other side of the room, and realized there were even more men in the house.

A man came jogging into the room, his eyes taking in Katie in delight for a split-second before turning to the two other men. "We've found something in the basement, sir. Our sensors are picking up some high energy readings from the other side of a wall. We just haven't figured out how to get in there yet."

"Katelyn?" Pete growled, as if she would just give in and tell them how to get in her lab.

She jumped at the venomous sound of Pete's voice before composing herself, and shrugging nonchalantly.

"Miss, you are already in a lot of trouble. It would be in your best interest to tell us how to get in that room," one of the men in suits told her.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Katie replied, standing to her full height, and looking defiantly at everyone in her line of sight.

The man smirked. "We'll see about that."

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Jack O'Neill strolled down the SGC corridor on his way to the briefing room. His mind had been in turmoil ever since his return from Ba'al's fortress planet.

Carter.

She had looked so beautiful. Unlike everyone else around, she had not aged a day in the last ten years. He had seen no added wrinkles or grey hair like so many of his friends on Earth now. Even Teal'c had visually aged in the seventeen years Jack had been asleep.

Her hair had grown out, most likely because of Ba'al. It reached all the way to her waist, and Jack hadn't failed to notice how full and wavy it appeared to be. The outfit she had been wearing was made of leather, and Jack grinned a little each time he thought of all the times he had seen Carter wearing leather. Ba'al's outfit, of course, was a bit more revealing than the leather pants and jacket she was used to, but Jack couldn't deny how flattering his former second had looked in it.

Even as her gorgeous face and body replayed over and over in his mind, Jack couldn't help but feel dreadful. Something wasn't right. That look on Ba'al's face was still disturbing Jack. He had to figure out what it meant.

Jack reached the briefing room and took his seat. A few minutes later, and Dixon was going on and on about a mission he wanted Jack to be a part of. Daniel, Teal'c, Wells, and Mitchell sat around the table as well, but Jack barely registered them at all.

"_Jack, I'm in trouble!"_

The voice sounded soft and frightened in Jack's head, but it came across loud and clear in his mind. Jack shot out of his seat and headed for the door in the middle of Dixon's sentence.

He knew whose voice it was. He wasn't sure how he knew. He had only talked with her in person a few times, but from the very first moment he heard her voice in his mind, he knew it was Katie. There were a million unanswered questions, but none of them bothered Jack as he bolted out of his seat as if commanded and stalked to the door.

"Uh, Jack?" Dixon's voice slowed his hand on the doorknob. "What are you doing?"

Jack stopped. What WAS he doing? He couldn't seriously be running off just because he had some sort of weird fantasy that Carter's kid needed him! What the hell was wrong with him?

"Uh, sir," the SF at the desk broke in only a second later. "Your son, Caleb, is on the line. He says its an emergency."

Dixon looked from Jack to the SF and nodded. He walked over and picked up the phone. "Caleb…..What? Katie?"

And with that, Jack was out the door.

"Alright son, Jack is already on his way. I'll send a team right behind him. Do what you can to stall them, but stay out of trouble, understand?"

"Yes sir," Caleb replied before hanging up and arguing once again with the NID agent who was refusing him access into the Shanahan home.

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Jack had made it to Carter's old home in record time. He stalked up the front steps, ignoring the NID who consistently tried to stop him. "Where is she?" he barked, as soon as he entered the front room.

"Jack!" Katie called out from another room, and Jack pushed past two NID officers to get to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his eyes scanning over her body, searching for any injury or restraints.

She shook her head at him, her eyes filled with fear. "No. They're trying to take me away. Don't let them Jack! Please! You have to help me!"

"I will," Jack told her, his brown eyes blazing into hers, and she knew, without reading his mind, that he would do everything he could to protect her.

"I'm afraid that will be a broken promise, Colonel O'Neill," one of the NID officers announced, strolling into the room with a self-satisfied smirk on his pointy face. "You see, little Ms. Shanahan here, has quite the stash in the basement, and her father has already granted us permission to take her in for questioning."

"You didn't!" Katie hissed, glaring at Pete on the other side of the doorway.

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" Pete yelled back at her. "Do you know how bad this makes me look?"

"Oh, go to hell, Pete! Like I care how this makes _you _look!" Katie growled.

"Colonel O'Neill!" Caleb's voice called out from behind Pete. Pete turned to see who was in his house now, and ended up giving Caleb enough room to squeeze past the stocky detective. "My dad's on the phone," he told Jack, tossing him his cell phone. "Because of what the NID already reported to finding in the basement, he was able to convince the President, that this investigation is SGC related, and you are to take Katie into your custody to the SGC," Caleb summarized, his gaze locking steadfastly on the NID agents in the room.

They weren't happy. They were not happy at all.

"You can't do that! We got to her first! This is bullshit!" an NID operative cried out belligerently and immediately pulled out his phone to call his superiors.

Caleb rushed over to Katie and gently grabbed her by the shoulders, checking over her body protectively, much the same way Jack had done. "You okay?" he asked her softly.

She nodded. "For the moment," she told him honestly, and he knew how true her words were.

After much arguing and many people talking on cell phones, Jack finally managed to get Katie to a government-issued SUV. Caleb opened the door for her and helped her inside, then climbed in right next to her.

Jack, who had gone around and climbed in the driver's seat, only gave Caleb a questioning glance, not saying a word.

"I'm not letting her out of my sight," Caleb told the colonel, slamming his door shut and slipping his arm protectively around Katie.

"Okay," Jack replied nonchalantly and started the engine.

The trip to the SGC was done mostly in silence, and upon reaching the lower levels, Katie and Caleb were whisked away to a comfortable room with two guards just outside the door.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Katie looked up at Caleb. In two steps, he had her in his arms and was hugging her body as close to his as it could be.

They stayed like that for quite awhile, only breaking away when they heard the click of the door reopening.

Jack came walking in, his eyes first on Katie, then glancing briefly at Caleb, before settling again on his unknown daughter.

"So, what's going on, sir?" Caleb asked, his hand finding Katie's and holding it tight.

The NID are fighting for you," Jack announced. "The president has agreed to let them into the mountain to question you about the things they found in your basement. But, you are still in our custody, and they can't take you out of here without presidential authorization. You're safe here, Katie."

Katie nodded, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. Was she really safe?

Jack continued. "They'll be here shortly. Dixon's ordered a check-up for…."

"No!" Caleb interrupted. "No check-ups!"

Jack's eyebrows shot up his head. "Why not?"

"Just because," Caleb replied, his fierce gaze burning into Jack's.

"I can't….I can't, Jack please. Don't let them examine me. I'm healthy, I swear, I'm healthy, they have no reason to examine me," Katie begged, her hand unconsciously tightening its hold on Caleb.

Jack sighed. "Caleb, can I have a moment alone with Katie?"

"No."

"Excuse me?" Jack returned, rather flabbergasted. Caleb was a cadet, he should be saluting and replying with 'yes sirs', not defying him at every turn!

"I'm not leaving her."

"Caleb knows everything about me, Jack. Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of him," Katie replied in a quiet voice.

Jack let out another long sigh and looked wearily from Katie to Caleb and back again. "How did you do it? How did you," he stopped and glanced at Caleb again, not sure if he should really go on talking like he was. "I'll do what I can to stop the exam, but you have to tell me why? You have to tell me how I knew you were in trouble even before Caleb called. Why is the NID after you, really?"

"She can't tell you!" Caleb replied for her. "Don't you see? Don't you get it, colonel? The more people who know, the more will come after her!"

"They already know!" Jack barked back at the cadet. "What ever it is, they already know! Do you really think they would want her so bad if they didn't? I don't care if they found homemade stargates in her basement or not! They would not be this gung-ho about getting her in their custody for that! Whatever they know, its much bigger than that!"

Katie's face fell in horror. They knew! How on earth did they find out? "Oh God, Caleb! What am I going to do?" Katie cried, turning and pressing her face on Caleb's chest. He wrapped his arms around her, throwing daggers with his eyes at Jack.

"It'll be alright. I'll get you out of this. We'll figure something out," he told her softly, gently rubbing her back as she cried on his shoulder.

An hour later, Katie was escorted by Jack into a desolate-looking room with nothing but a table with one chair on one side and two on the other, and a large mirror on the wall. "Who's on the other side?" she asked Jack, taking her seat next to him at the table and pointing discreetly at the large mirror.

Jack gave her a small smile. "Caleb and his dad. The boy was quite adamant about not letting you out of his sight. Dixon compromised by setting up the interview in this room so he could watch you through the mirror."

Katie nodded, secretly thrilled and highly comforted knowing it was Caleb on the other side and not more NID agents.

A moment later, a short, skinny man with a pasty face came inside and took the seat across the table. "Colonel O'Neill, Ms. Shanahan. My name is Larry O'Leary and I will be interrogating you today.

Katie grimaced at the word, 'interrogating' but nodded nonetheless.

"I'm sorry, but this is being recorded, so for all answers from henceforth, will have to be spoken aloud, is that understood?" the man announced in a condescending tone that rose Katie's hackles.

"Yes," she replied, rather indignantly.

"Good, now tell me, Ms. Shanahan, the circular devices in your basement, did you make those yourself?"

"Yes."

"Good. How did you know how to make them?"

Katie shrugged. She very well couldn't tell this man that she just knew, that would certainly lead to tests she couldn't have. "I-I," she stopped and glanced at Jack before sitting up a little taller in her seat and focusing back on the man across from her. "My mom used to work here, are you aware of that?"

"Uh, yes. Yes I am," the man replied in confusion.

Katie shrugged again. "Well, one day she brought home her briefcase and I went through it. I found information, diagrams, sketches, about the stargate. I took them. Eventually, I decided to build my own."

Jack looked at her, but hid his disbelief. Carter never took information out of the mountain, he knew she was lying.

The man raised a questioning eyebrow. "And where are these papers."

Oh….shit.

"Uhm, well, I don't have them anymore."

"The stargate is a very, very advance piece of technology. How was a high school girl able to build her own?"

Katie glared at him. "I happen to be very smart. Gifted even."

"According to your school records, you are only slightly above-average. Sure, you skipped a grade, but since then, you've only been holding down average grades in your classes."

"I am smart. I chose to play dumb in school," Katie retorted.

"Why," the NID man continued. "Why would you want to play dumb in school if you were really so smart that you could build a machine that created wormholes?"

Katie raised her nose slightly in the air and jutted her jaw out in defiance. Jack watched her from beside. So strong, so sure, so defiant. She was so much like Carter, and so different at the same time. Pride swept through Jack's body as if he had raised this girl himself. It didn't matter that he didn't. He promised himself right then that he would do everything to keep her safe for the rest of her life.

"For boys," she said loftily, and Jack was pulled out of his thoughts at her odd answer.

"For…..boys?" the NID agent repeated.

"Of course," Katie beamed. "Boys don't like girls who are smarter than them. It makes them feel inferior. And, as smart as I am, I still don't want to go through high school without a boyfriend. Social status is very important to me," she finished, flicking her hair over her shoulder in a teen-movie imitation and making the NID agent choke slightly on his own spit.

The agent took a drink from the water on the table and then shook his head slightly, trying to return his mind to the questions he had yet to ask. It went like that for nearly two more hours. The agent asking Katie questions, and Katie answering with petty, superficial answers. Jack had never seen anyone so in control of an interrogation before. And that person was most definitely not the NID agent who looked more flabbergasted than anyone could even imagine.

"Well then," the agent continued. "I think that is all the questions I have." He stood up and slipped a sheet of paper across the table. "This is permission from Mr. Shanahan for blood work on Katelyn. I assume the SGC infirmary is capable of filling this request?"

"What? NO! I can't!" Katie cried out.

Jack set his hand on her arm. "She's got a slight phobia of needles," he told the agent in response.

The agent smirked at Katie with a gloating smile. "Well, that's too bad, Ms. Shanahan, they've ordered quite a few tests."

Katie stood up in defiance, her chair falling back and smacking the floor with a loud thump. "You can't make me!"

The agent's smirk grew to a full-fledged smile. "Ah, that's the beauty of you being a minor, Katelyn. We don't need your permission, only that of your half-drunk father."

Katie let out a long breath and glanced at Jack. "What if I told you he wasn't my father, would that stop it?"

Jack gave her a strange look, but the agent only laughed at her mockingly. "It doesn't matter. Whether your mom screwed around on your dad or not is irrelevant, he's your legal guardian, and that's all we need. So you can stop playing your games now, little girl."

Katie glared at the agent, but turned her hopeful eyes back to Jack only seconds later.

Jack shook his head at her. "I'm sorry. The most we could do would be stall them until they ran your DNA against Pete's."

Katie bit her lip. Not good! She didn't want them to have her DNA either. She was human, she knew that, both her parents were human, so she had to be too. But still, she had no idea what her DNA looked like, and she didn't want to find out this way. She shook her head. "It was a stupid idea, let's just go."

Jack nodded and the agent grinned evilly at the two as they walked out of the room.

Caleb and General Dixon met them in the corridor, and the four of them walked back towards the VIP rooms that they were in earlier. Jack and Dave were behind Katie and Caleb, and in front of them was one lone SF. Katie leaned casually towards Caleb and whispered so only he could hear. "Get ready to run. At the end of this corridor is an escape hatch."

Before Caleb could process what she said and reply with a "What?" Katie had already started on their escape. Without so much as lifting a finger, the SF in front of them went flying to the ground, held down by an invisible force. Behind them, Jack and Dave were pressed against the wall, their bodies completely immobile.

Katie turned to Jack before sprinting off. "I'm sorry," she mouthed and then fled with Caleb at her side.

They had to go, they had no choice, they had to keep her safe. No one could know who she was.

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It didn't take them long at all to get out of the mountain and disappear from the area. Caleb didn't know where they were going, but he knew he had to get her as far away as he could. They ended up at his quarters. His car had been left at Katie's house and there were still too many NID agents lingering about for them to retrieve it.

Caleb had keys to his father's Jaguar that was kept at a garage not far from the Academy. The keys were in his room, and so they could get them, get some extra cash, and then get out of town.

Caleb had just pocketed a large amount of bills into his wallet, when Rob Baker came strolling into the room. The cadet looked rather shocked, to say the least, to see Katie in his room, but Caleb shook the thought away.

"What are you doing here?" Rob asked Katie.

Katie bit her lip, looking from Caleb to Rob. She trusted Caleb like no one else. He meant more to her than she would probably ever admit, but Rob, at the time, was her boyfriend. She could trust him too, right? "There are people after me. Caleb and I are leaving town."

Rob's face went blank as he digested this information. Then, it spread into a small smile that gave Caleb the chills. "I'll go with you. I know of a cabin in Washington State. They'll never find you there."

Katie looked at Caleb questioningly. If Rob had an ulterior motive, Katie would know, right?

"Okay," Caleb finally agreed. "Let's go now."

And with that, the three rushed out of the Academy quarters and piled into Rob's small car, unaware that Rob had just returned from visiting his father in prison.

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	8. Chapter 8

a/n: Because of the long wait in updating this story, I wrote a nice sized chapter with quite a bit of action. Okay, so I'm not great at writing action, but a lot does happen in this chapter, so hopefully that alone will buy me forgiveness for my lack of updating in the last few weeks. (Flutters eyelashes) Am I forgiven?

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Katie was born with her abilities to hear other's thoughts, to move objects, to heal without so much as a band-aid. It wasn't something that she gained or learned over time. It wasn't something that was given to her or taught to her. It just was. It was a part of her. A part of her genetic make-up. It didn't define her, or complete her, it was simply her.

She never considered it a gift or a special ability. It wasn't a separate part of her. It wasn't something that could be taken away or increased. It was her. No one questions the limbs they are born with. Those limbs are a part of the human body. They are not special or unique, they are simply normal parts of the body. Katie's abilities are limbs to her. She was born with them, they are as much a part of her as her limbs, as her brain, as every cell in her body.

She was also born with the distinct knowledge that her abilities were hers alone. Not another human on earth could do what she could. Some day, through evolution, many humans would acquire these abilities, slowly at first, maybe one or two out of a generation. Their brains would operate slightly different than they do now, and an ability such as telepathy or telekinesis would be accessible. These abilities would be passed down from generation to generation until the brain expanded even larger and more abilities would be accessible. Eventually, as centuries would pass, these humans would become capable of all that Katie is now.

She was the only one now, but she knew it was not always so, and would not always be.

As a young child, Katie could not control the thoughts she heard. She easily picked up conversations from over a hundred yards away, and could pick up another's thoughts from twice that distance. It was normal for her, something that had always been there, and so was never bothersome to her.

That is, until she reached junior high. A large, two-story brick building filled to capacity with confused, spiteful, acne-covered, puberty-reaching, adolescents. The thirteen and fourteen year olds were going through massive physical changes, from voice-changing for the boys, to menstrual cycles for the girls. The boys were growing taller, developing hair follicles in new, manly places, while the girls were squealing over graduating out of training bras.

It was an awkward time. It was also the time where cliques were initially formed. It was war. Everyone fought for the popular cliques, and no one was exempt. Rude comments and mean stunts were pulled on just about everyone. Some cried, some fought, some sought revenge. Words were the weapon of choice, and if you had a sharp tongue, you were quickly at the top of the pyramid.

It wasn't the words spoken aloud that bothered Katie. Living with a drunken Pete gave her enough experience to ignore the silly juvenile insults. No, the spoken words didn't hurt at all. It was the unspoken words that ripped Katie's heart out. It was the thoughts her so-called friends had as they stood right in front of her with a smile on their heavily-clad make-up faces that hurt the most.

"_God! Look at her! She thinks she's so cool! I can't wait to bring her down!"_

"_Katie is such a bitch! I can't believe she really thinks we're friends!"_

"_I bet she breaks out in zits by winter. Haha, she'll look so ugly! I can't wait!"_

Katie often cried herself to sleep in the early days of seventh grade. She couldn't believe what vultures her friends had turned into. The only ones who were still allies were Janet, Matt, and of course, Caleb.

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around at the end of November, Katie had dug deep inside her own mind, something she rarely ever did. She spent much of the American holiday teaching herself how to block out other's thoughts. By the time Monday came back around, Katie was relieved to discover that her lessons on blockage had worked.

For the most part, she could be a normal thirteen year old. She could hang out with her friends, and be just as blissfully ignorant of their real feelings as they were. Once in awhile, a person's thoughts would slip in, and she could easily unblock her mind to pick up another's thoughts, but she never went out of the way to do so unless she needed to.

When she started dating Rob, she never felt the need to read his thoughts. She was his girlfriend, and she needed to respect his privacy. And so she did. Even after Caleb's warnings, she never delved into his thoughts. The truth was, she was scared to. Rob was a nice guy. He was amusing and entertaining, and Katie really enjoyed his company, not to mention how jealous it made Caleb. But, if Caleb was right, and she looked in his mind and discovered this, she would have to give up her fun little courtship with the handsome, young cadet. And up until that point, she just wasn't ready to do that yet.

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They were driving down the highway, heading Northwest. Katie was sitting in the front seat, next to Rob driving, while Caleb was stretched across the back. Her eyes were closed as she thought back over all that had recently happened. Caleb, once again, had been her knight in shining armor. Always there to help her, always there to save her if need be. He would give his life for hers, she knew that without the need to read his mind. It was clear. It was undeniable. Just one look in his eyes as they gazed upon hers and she knew he would die a hundred deaths to keep her safe. To him, she was treasure. Treasure that he never wanted to lose.

Katie opened her eyes and glanced over at her boyfriend. He was good-looking, young, fit, an awesome kisser, not as good as Caleb, but still. She could trust him, right? He had never been anything less than gentlemanly towards her.

"What was Colonel O'Neill talking about back there, Katie?" Caleb spoke up, jarring Katie out of her reverie.

Easily enough, Katie allowed her mind to accept Caleb's thoughts. She knew he was being vague because of Rob, and his words were an invitation into his mind.

"_What did he mean by knowing you were in danger before I called?"_

"He's different than everyone else. He's like my mother."

Caleb nodded, understanding her cryptic answer. He knew all about her internal relationship with her mother. "How is that possible?" Caleb asked aloud.

Katie dropped her gaze to her lap, her fingers fretfully pulling on each other, her nerves starting to get the best of her. "He's…….," she glanced around, noting Rob's attention still on the road before them. She bit her bottom lip as she sucked in a breath of air through her nostrils. "He's my biological father," she admitted barely above a whisper.

"WHAT?" Rob's voice screeched from beside her, causing her to jump about an inch in her seat.

The look on Rob's face was enough to scare Katie. Her eyes widened and her forehead wrinkled at his sudden jump in personality. He looked pissed. Beyond pissed, and Katie couldn't fathom why. As his angry eyes burned into hers, Katie did something she told herself she would not do.

She unblocked his mind from hers………

"_How is this possible? How can he be her father? How does the Trust not know this? This could complicate things! O'Neill will do anything to save her! Damn it, how did this kind of information slip through the cracks?"_

Katie's eyes widened even larger as his thoughts echoed through her frazzled mind. NOOOOOOOOO! How could this happen? Stupid stubbornness! Why did she have to be so naïve?

"_Jack, I need you!"_

"_Where the hell are you?"_

"_North I-25, just south of Denver. Jack, I made a big mistake and Caleb and I are in danger. Help us!"_

"_Are you in a vehicle?"_

"_Yes, we're with Rob Baker in his red mustang. He's part of the Trust."_

"_Shit!……. Can you get away from him?"_

Katie glanced back at Rob, whose attention had returned to the road. She looked out the windshield, noticing the small town they were quickly whipping by.

"_I-I think so. There's a town, can you get there?"_

"_I'm already on my way. I'm only about ten minutes behind you. Run Katie, I'll find you."_

Katie blinked and licked her dry lips. She adjusted casually in her seat and glanced back at Caleb. She lifted her eyebrows and gave him a frightened look.

"_What?" _he immediately questioned silently.

"You were right about him all along," she stated in a calm, cool voice.

"_Who? Rob? Did you read his mind?"_

Katie nodded.

"_What the hell, Katie? What took you so long? Damn it, I trusted you to know what he was up to!"_

"I'm sorry," she told him in a soft voice.

"Sorry for what?" Rob asked, his voice much harder than normal.

"For trusting you," she told him in flat tone, her head swiveling to take in his startled response.

His eyes widened briefly before narrowing and a menacing look took over his handsome features. He opened his mouth to speak, but before any sound came out, his car came to an abrupt stop. The sudden drop from 70 mph to 0 mph, caused all occupants of the car to jolt forward, being restrained from going through the windshield only by the seatbelts.

The passenger airbag had conveniently been turned off, but the driver's airbag had inflated immediately as if the car had been struck by an outside force. As Rob battled with the inflated bag, Caleb and Katie quickly exited the car and fled into the surrounding city.

They ran side-by-side down a side street, both glancing back periodically as they ran. It only took a few seconds before they heard Rob's voice and the sound of his feet heavily hitting the pavement. Caleb grabbed Katie by the shirtsleeve and directed her down another street, Rob running quickly behind them.

There was a convenience store on the corner, and Caleb pulled Katie behind the building, ducking behind a large, smelly garbage dumpster. They squatted down, Caleb's large arm wrapped around Katie's small frame and his body blocking hers as much as possible.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Rob sneered in a sing-song malicious voice from the other side of the dumpster.

Katie bit her lip and pressed her body closer to Caleb. Chastising herself over and over again for allowing this to happen.

"Oh come on now, hide and seek is over. I win," his voice rang out, sounding even closer. "Then again, I usually do," he laughed. "I have to say, I was ecstatic when they switched me from Caleb to you, Katelyn. You are much prettier for one. Not to mention, the make-out sessions were a blast."

Caleb's grip on Katie's arm tightened in anger as Rob's words reached their ears.

"Ah, but then you were kind of boring, I knew you were hiding something, but you were such a closed book. That is……until I came upon you and your friends at the park." He laughed mockingly. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered what you could do! Imagine the surprise of my superiors when I told them! Oh hell yeah am I getting a fat bonus when this is all over. Maybe my own planet, for my father and I to live the rest of our lives on, that'd be nice."

"Go to hell!" Katie screamed out, no longer able to hold in her emotions.

"You first," came a snively voice, way too close to them.

Katie glanced behind her to see Rob standing there with a gun pointing at the both of them. He grinned cockily at her.

"Bastard!" Caleb hissed and launched himself at the man.

BANG!

"NOOOOOO!" Katie screamed, and at the same time, Rob went flying through the air and crashed into the brick wall ten feet behind him. The sounds of several bones breaking on impact filled the air, but Katie was oblivious to them. She immediately dropped to her knees and pulled Caleb's limp body to her lap.

"Caleb, Caleb," she cried out, her hands frantically searching his body for his injury. It was a large, open chest wound. The gun shot at point-blank range had ripped through his chest cavity and shot clean out the back. She put her hand over his heart, trying to stop the bleeding, but it kept pouring out. With her other hand, she checked his pulse, but she couldn't feel a thing. "No, no, no, no, NO! Don't you do this to me, Caleb!" she cried.

Sniffling a few more times. Katie felt a sense of peace wash over her body. Her mind and body went completely numb, and as if on auto-pilot, one hand covered his wound while the other found its way to his forehead. With nothing but tranquil thoughts surrounding her, she felt the numbness in her body leave and an overwhelming feeling of love and strength fill her. A bright light surrounded them both and she pushed all the love and strength she felt into Caleb's body. In seconds, the wound completely healed, and Caleb coughed hoarsely, gasping in between for air.

"Katie!" Came a familiar, anxious yell.

Katie whipped her head around to see Jack jogging towards her, his gun in his hands, ready to fire if need be.

"You okay?" he asked, gripping her by the shoulders and assessing her quickly of any injuries.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Caleb was hurt, but, but, he's okay now."

Jack glanced down at Caleb, still somewhat unconscious on the ground. "You sure?"

"Yeah, he was shot, but I-I healed him."

Jack looked back at the young woman he held tightly in his grasp. "Healed him? How?"

Katie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, her eyes lingering on Caleb before coming back up and seeking out her father's. "I-I'm honestly not sure how," she told him.

Jack let out a loud sigh and then pulled her towards him, his relief that she was okay, washing over him as he hugged the teenager.

"Aww, such a heartfelt father/daughter moment. I almost feel bad for interrupting."

Jack and Katie slowly separated and turned as one to see the owner of the new voice.

"Ma-mom?" Katie choked out.

Ba'al smiled widely at the young woman. "I am very pleased to meet you at last, Katelyn. I must say, I'm not surprised at all to see you've sought out your biological father."

"What?" Jack breathed from beside her.

Katie turned her head slightly to gauge Jack's reaction. She let a small, worried smile creep onto the outer edges of her lips. "Congrats, it's a girl," she told him in a half-hearted attempt at humor.

He looked at her, his eyes taking in every detail of her as if it was the first time seeing her. "You-you knew?" he breathed out, his eyes not leaving hers.

Katie licked her lips and lowered her head, nodding ever so slightly at his question.

"As touching as this is, I am a bit impatient in acquiring my new host."

Jack's head shot back to Ba'al's in an instant. "What? Over my dead body!" he raged, pushing Katie behind him.

Ba'al smirked, Carter's bright blue eyes dazzling with evil joy. "That can most definitely be arranged, colonel," she announced, her hand raising to reveal a small goa'uld killing device.

Jack stiffened in front of Katie, planning on protecting her to the end.

"However," Ba'al continued, his hand relaxing and lowering somewhat. "Without you and Samantha, I'd never have this opportunity to become the most powerful being in the galaxy. So, I'm willing to compromise." Ba'al paused in his speech and grinned brilliantly at the two huddled closely behind the garbage dumpster. "Give me the child, colonel, and I'll give you the mother."

"What?" Jack gasped.

"Come now, your combined genes created her, surely you'd be capable of making another. She's merely one child. I shall take excellent care of her, O'Neill."

"Go to hell!" he snarled in response.

Ba'al smirked his evil smirk again. "I will have your daughter as my host O'Neill. No matter if you're dead or alive, I assure you."

"You won't get away with…." As Jack spoke, Ba'al's face contorted and seconds later, he fell over, a knife embedded in Sam's chest. "What the hell!" Jack screeched.

Katie glanced behind her at a kneeling Caleb, his hand still poised from the throw of the knife. She whipped her head back around, the body of her mother sprawled out on the hard, cement ground, blood pouring from the knife wound.


End file.
